Author: Thomson, Robert
Biography:
THOMSON, Robert (b 1730?: ancestry.com)
Robert Thomson was a Writer to the Signet (W.S.) in Edinburgh, Scotland, when he published his first book, a manual entitled The Duty and Office of a Messenger-at-Arms . . . to which is added, an Appendix relative to the Office of a Notary-Public (1790). His second prose tract was a refutation of Paine’s Age of Reason published in London: Divine Authority of the Bible: or, Revelation and Reason, opposed to Sophistry and Ridicule (1801). Then, for reasons unknown, he moved to Paris where he was employed as a teacher of English and transferred his attention to literature. In Paris he published the first almost-complete translation into English of the fables of La Fontaine in four volumes (1806), followed by a translation of the Lutrin of Boileau (1811), qq.v., and finally his own lively poem in celebration of the defeat of Napoleon in Russia (1814). Thereafter nothing is heard of him and no records have been found to indicate whether or not he died abroad. His La Fontaine, having become very rare, was reprinted in London in 1884 with a little biographical information. It is most probable—though it would mean an unusually long and varied life—that he was the Robert Thomson, son of George and Elizabeth (Lawrie) Thomson, who was baptised at Linlithgow, West Lothian, on 7 Oct. 1730, married Anne Stirling at Edinburgh on 14 Dec. 1755, and earned his living as a schoolmaster at Limekilns, Fife. He later moved the family to Banff and then about 1774 to Edinburgh, where he became a messenger-at-arms. Their son George Thomson (1757-1851) became famous as the collector and publisher of Burns’s songs (q.v.). After the death of his wife in 1765 Thomson remarried, but the name of his second wife has not been found. (“George Thomson,” ODNB and electricscotland.com 29 Aug. 2024; Scotland’s People 29 Aug. 2024; ancestry.com 29 Aug. 2024; findmypast.com 29 Aug. 2024; Fables of La Fontaine [London: Nimmo, 1884], v-vi) HJ