Author: Thomson, James
Biography:
THOMSON, James (c. 1755-1837: findmypast.com)
There are some gaps in the public record for James Thomson, author of Sir Ralph of Stannerton Green, but the basics of his identity are clear. He came from Stamfordham or Stannerton in Northumberland. His first book, dated from Newcastle, with an epigraph in Greek and a dedication to Sir Matthew White Ridley, bt., was based on local history, stories told by or about an eccentric Scottish soldier who had appeared at Stannerton after 1715 and disappeared again a few years later. A note of 1861 in ms in the ECCO copy indicates that the author had been the son of a shoemaker who became a clergyman, first a curate at Netherwitton and later at an unnamed small living in “the South.” James Thomson married Ann or Anna Newton, daughter of the vicar of Mitford, Northumberland, at Stamfordham on 7 June 1783. Nine of their children were baptised in Northumberland—at Netherwitton, Hartburn, and Mitford (where they lived at Nunriding Hall). The fourth son was James Thomson the engraver (1788-1850). His ordination appears to have happened later than the marriage but records are missing from CCEd; he is sometimes referred to as M.A. but confirmation is lacking. In 1816 the family moved to Yorkshire where he served as Vicar of Ormesby for the rest of his life. He died at Ormesby and was buried at his church, St. Cuthbert’s, on 9 Feb. 1837. As “the Rev. James Thomson” he was the author also of three works of prose fiction: The Denial, or The Happy Retreat (1790), The Musical Drone (1793), and Winnifred, a Tale of Wonder (1803). (ancestry.com 29 Aug. 2024; findmypast.com 29 Aug. 2024; “Thomson, James [1788-1850],” ODNB 29 Aug. 2024; Newcastle Courant 9 Jul. 1785, 27 Nov. 1790; EN1, 2; CCEd 29 Aug. 2024)