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Thomas Perronet Thompson

Thomas Perronet Thompson (15 March 1783 – 6 September 1869)[1] was a British Parliamentarian, a governor of Sierra Leone and a radical reformer. He became prominent in 1830s and 1840s as a leading activist in the Anti-Corn Law League. He specialized in the grass-roots mobilisation of opinion through pamphlets, newspaper articles, correspondence, speeches, and endless local planning meetings.[2]

Thomas Perronet Thompson, portrait by George Hayter

Biography

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Thompson was born in Kingston upon Hull in March 1783.[1] He was son of Thomas Thompson, a banker of Hull and his wife, Philothea Perronet Briggs. The name Perronet was from his mother's grandfather, Vincent Perronet, vicar of Shoreham and a friend of John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley. He was educated at Hull Grammar School. He was a cousin of Henry Perronet Briggs. He graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge in 1802[1] with the rank of seventh Wrangler.[3] From 1803, Thompson served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, switching to the British Army (as a lieutenant) in 1806. Thompson became Governor of Sierra Leone between August 1808 and June 1810, due in part to his acquaintance with William Wilberforce. He was recalled from the job after complaining about the system by which "freed" slaves were compulsorily "apprenticed" for fourteen years. He wrote that Wilberforce and the Sierra Leone Company had "by means of their agents become slave traders themselves". He threatened to expose this situation, so he was sacked, with Wilberforce himself agreeing to the dismissal.[4]

In 1812, Thompson returned to his military duties, and, after serving in the south of France, was in 1815 attached as Arabic interpreter to an expedition against the Wahabees of the Persian Gulf, with whom he negotiated a treaty (dated January 1820) in which the slave trade was for the first time declared piracy. Whilst in the Army, Thompson was promoted to major in 1825, lieutenant colonel in 1829 and in later years was made a major general.[5] While serving in the Army in India, his second son, Charles, was born at Bombay.

As a radical reformer, Thompson wrote the True Theory of Rent and A Catechism on the Corn Laws. He also joint-owned the Westminster Review for a time. He wrote several articles in the journal supporting universal suffrage, and his articles were republished in 1842 in six volumes.[6]

Thompson represented Kingston upon Hull in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1837 and was elected to represent Bradford between 1847 and 1852, and again from 1857 to 1859.[6]

Thompson died in September 1869 aged 86.[1] Monuments to his second son General Charles William Thompson, his youngest son Lieutenant Colonel John Wycliffe Thompson, who served in the Crimean War, and his youngest daughter Anne Elise are in the chancel of St Mary's Church, Cottingham, near Hull.

Personal life

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Thompson married Anne Elizabeth [Nancy] Barker; they had three sons, Thomas Perronet Edward, Charles William, and John Wycliffe.[7]

Thompson's family also included his granddaughters, the historian Edith Thompson, and Elizabeth Thompson, who were both prolific contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.[8][9]

Thompson was interested in music, writing books on harmony and just intonation e.g. for the guitar (Instructions to my daughter for playing on the enharmonic guitar).[10] His mathematical publications were somewhat eccentric. He published a Theory of Parallels in 1844, and was also the author of Geometry without Axioms, in which he endeavoured to "get rid of" axioms.[6]

Thompson was teetotal and a vegetarian.[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d "Thompson, Thomas Perronet (THM798TP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ Michael J. Turner, "The 'Bonaparte of free trade' and the Anti-Corn Law League." Historical Journal 41.4 (1998): 1011-1034.
  3. ^ Saunders, John (1840). Saunders' Portraits and Memoirs of Eminent Living Political Reformers. London: J. Dowding. p. 72.
  4. ^ William Wilberforce 'condoned slavery', Colonial Office papers reveal. Caroline Davies. guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 August 2010 18.49 BST. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  5. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 870–871.
  6. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 871.
  7. ^ "Thomas Perronet Thompson correspondence and family papers". University of Leeds. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson". JISC.
  9. ^ "They Changed Language History. It's Time To Learn Their Names". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  10. ^ Instructions to my daughter for playing on the enharmonic guitar: an attempt to effect the execution of correct harmony, on principles analogous to those of the ancient enharmonic by Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783–1869)
    Review (The Harmonicon, 1830)   Excerpt on temperament (The Harmonicon, 1830)   Extended Review (The Westminster Review, Volume XVI, 1832)   Postscript to the prev. Extended Review
  11. ^ Gregory, James. (2002). "The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c. 1840-1901". eprints.soton.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2022.

References

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Further reading

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Images
Writings
Preceded by Governor of Sierra Leone
21 July 1808 – 12 February 1810 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull
1835–1837
With: William Hutt 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bradford
1846–1852
With: William Busfield, to 1851
Robert Milligan, from 1851 		Succeeded by
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