Thomas Perronet Thompson
Encyclopedia
Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783 - 1869) was a British Parliamentarian
, a Governor
of Sierra Leone
and a radical reformer.
Thompson was born in Kingston upon Hull
in 1783. He was son of Thomas Thompson, a merchant 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 graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge
in 1802. 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 in Sierra Leone. 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.
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
. 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
. Thompson represented Kingston upon Hull
in the House of Commons
from 1835 to 1837 and was elected to represent Bradford
in 1847.
Thompson was also involved in music, writing books on Harmony and Just Intonation e.g. for the guitar
(Instructions to my daughter for playing on the enharmonic guitar), and building an organ with over 40 notes to the octave, to "realise the visions of Guido and Mersenne.
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
.
Images
Writings
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, a Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
and a radical reformer.
Thompson was born in Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
in 1783. He was son of Thomas Thompson, a merchant of Hull and his wife, Philothea Perronet Briggs. The name Perronet was from his mother's grandfather, Vincent Perronet, vicar of Shoreham
Shoreham, Kent
Shoreham is a village and civil parish in the valley of the River Darent six miles north of Sevenoaks in Kent: it is in the District of Sevenoaks. The parish includes the settlements of Badgers Mount and Well Hill....
and a friend of John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and his brother Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
. He was educated at Hull Grammar School
Hull Grammar School
Hull Grammar School was an independent secondary school in Hull, England, founded in 1486 by Dr. John Alcock. The school merged with Hull High School to form Hull Collegiate School in 2005.- History :The seventeenth oldest independent school in the U.K...
. He graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
in 1802. From 1803, Thompson served as a midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, switching to the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
(as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
) in 1806. Thompson became Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
between August 1808 and June 1810, due in part to his acquaintance with William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
. He was recalled from the job after complaining about the system by which "freed" slaves were compulsorily "apprenticed" for fourteen years in Sierra Leone. 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.
In 1812, Thompson returned to his military duties, and, after serving in the south of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, was in 1815 attached as Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
interpreter to an expedition against the Wahabees of the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, with whom he negotiated a treaty (dated January 1820) in which the slave trade was for the first time declared piracy
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
. Whilst in the Army, Thompson was promoted to Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in 1825, Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in 1829 and in later years was made a Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
. 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
Westminster Review
The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828....
for a time. He wrote several articles in the journal supporting universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. Thompson represented Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull (UK Parliament constituency)
Kingston upon Hull, often simply referred to as Hull, was a parliamentary constituency in Yorkshire, electing two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1305 until 1885...
in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
from 1835 to 1837 and was elected to represent Bradford
Bradford (UK Parliament constituency)
Bradford was a parliamentary constituency in Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 until it was abolished for the 1885 general election....
in 1847.
Thompson was also involved in music, writing books on Harmony and Just Intonation e.g. for the guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
(Instructions to my daughter for playing on the enharmonic guitar), and building an organ with over 40 notes to the octave, to "realise the visions of Guido and Mersenne.
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
Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire
Cottingham is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies just to the north-west of the city of Kingston upon Hull...
, near Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
.
Further Reading
- General T. Perronet Thompson by Leonard George Johnson
- "Raising up Dark Englishmen": Thomas Perronet Thompson, Colonies, Race, and the Indian Mutiny by Michael J. Turner (Journal of Colonialism and Colonial HistoryJournal of Colonialism and Colonial HistoryThe Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History is an academic journal established in 2000 and devoted to research in the relatively new field of colonial studies. The journal is aimed at a wide variety of scholars concerned with the history and social and political impact of colonialism and...
- Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2005)
External links
- Information on Thomas Perronet Thompson, pub. 1840 (Saunders' portraits and memoirs of eminent living political reformers ...; by John Saunders; 1840)
- Information (Hull City CouncilHull City CouncilHull City Council is the governing body for the unitary authority and city of Kingston upon Hull. It was created in 1972 as the successor to the Corporation of Hull, which was also known as Hull Corporation....
) - Thomas Perronet Thompson
Images
- Image from a painting by B. E. Duppa
- Image of Thomas Perronet Thompson (Royal Academy of Music)
Writings
- Google books
- Archive.org
- Papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783 - 1869) http://www.hull.ac.uk/arc/collection/dth.html (Hull University Archives])
- Papers/Correspondance of Thomas Perronet Thompson (University of Leeds)
- Papers of Thomas Perronet Thompson relating to Sierra Leone (British Online Archives)