Author: Thomson, William
Biography:
THOMSON, William (1745-1817: ancestry.co.uk)
Although ODNB gives his birth year as 1746, ancestry records indicate that he was baptised in Forteviot, Perthshire, a year earlier, on 6 Oct. 1745. His mother was Ann Millar (or Miller); his father was Matthew Thomson, a carpenter and farmer; they married in Forteviot on 5 June 1743. He was educated at the parish school, Perth grammar school, and St. Andrews university where he worked as the personal librarian for the chancellor, Thomas Hay, earl of Kinnoull. He was ordained in 1776 as the assistant to James Porteous of Monivard, Perthshire, but it quickly became evident that his temperament and tastes made him unsuited to a clerical post and he resigned in 1778. With an annual pension of £50 from Thomas Hay, he moved to London and, having first gained notice by his continuation of Robert Watson's History of Philip III of Spain (1783), he successfully established himself as a writer proficient across a range of genres—history, biography, travel writing, fiction, and drama. In 1783 St Andrews awarded him an honorary LLD. In 1790-1800 and 1806-10 he wrote the historical section of Dodsley’s Annual Register; in 1794-96 he owned and wrote for the English Review; and he contributed to a range of other periodicals. He also collaborated with other writers and published anonymously and under various pseudonyms. He is said to have been twice married: firstly, to a Scot, Diana Miltone, but no records for her or the marriage have been located; and, secondly, to a novelist, Anna Thomson. Both marriages produced children. Despite all his literary activity and success, illness in his last years caused financial hardship and his wife wrote on 8 Jan. 1817 to the Royal Literary Fund seeking assistance; he was granted 30 guineas. He died at home in Kensington on 16 Feb. and his funeral was held at St. Mary Abbots Church. (ODNB 23 Nov. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 23 Nov. 2020; Annual Biography and Obituary 2 [1818]; findmypast.co.uk 24 Nov. 2020; RLF file 357) SR