[Mother, her father and motherThomsons: Scottish? early death. Status: gentlemen, property, marriagesMother's relationsJJ Thomson: life, career, work, Nobel and his son: life, career, work, Nobeland descendants
Ebenezer ThomsonBooksellersPresbyterianism]
Firstly I have to acknowledge the debt I owe to Irene McIntyre of Linlithgow, wife of my father's cousin, who has fed me a daily diet of information and discoveries about these ancestors.
I can start with what I know from oral tradition. My great grandmother was Georgina Henrietta Thomson. She was the eldest of three sisters. the others being Beatrice Jemimah, known as Aunt Mimah, who died in childbirth at the birth of her late second child. My grandmother remembered seeing her body lying with that of her child. The youngest of the three sisters was Sarah Jane, known by us as Auntie Janie. I was told that she had a son who was learning disabled, whom she used to tie to the signpost near her home, and who died after being poisoned by eating an indelible pencil. Indelible pencils do indeed often contain an aniline dye which is in fact poisonous to humans. I believe that Auntie Janie married twice but I know no details.
I believe that Mother, as my great grandmother was universally known by all her descendants, was Scottish on her father's side, and Welsh on her mother's, and was herself born on March 1st, St David's day. Mother was supposed to have come from good family, and to have married below herself. I knew that Mother and her two sisters were orphaned when quite young, and I was told, probably by my grandmother, that they then lived with an aunt.
My great grandmother had a 'shotgun' marriage to Ted Neild, a gardener, in 1899, the year of my grandmother's birth. Mother lived in Withington, in St Paul's Place, and Ted Neild lived in Northenden, a short distance away and along the same road, perhaps two miles, and just over the river Mersey in Cheshire.
Georgina Henrietta Thomson was the daughter of Robert Augustus Thompson. He was the son of Joseph Anderson Thomson, himself the son of Ebenezer Thomson. Ebenezer was the son of James and Sarah Thomson. This James was born in Manchester in 1751 and died there in 1831. We know little about James, other than he was probably the son of Nathan Thomson and Mary Sidebotham, but quite a lot about Ebenezer.
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| Baptism of James Thomson, 21st July, 1751, at what is now Manchester Cathedral. |
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| Tradesmen called Thomson in Manchester in 1825.Ebenezer is listed. |
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| 'Silurian Cardiff Merthyr and Brecon Mercury' of 3rd January 1852 (Courtesy of Irene McIntyre) |
A CESTRIAN "MAN OF ROSS"
The Chester Chronicle announces the death of Mr Ebenezer Thomson, a gentleman probably not very extensively known amongst the elite of the city, but beneficially known and respected by vast numbers of the poorer classes of the community. Mr Thomson was a gentleman of property, and for the last six or seven years has passed the greater part of his time in Chester, where a systematic course of unobtrusive philanthropy and benevolence has won for him a grateful remembrance. Somewhat singular in personal appearance — his huge straw hat, worn mostly winter and summer, formed a very noticeable feature of his attire — and eccentric in his general habits, he was yet ever intent upon doing good, and no needy applicant but could gain readily his ear and charity. During the autumn he has lived at the Pied Bull, where a number of his poor pensioners used weekly to resort for the accustomed bounty. On Saturday week he left Chester, for the purpose of passing a short time at the residence of his son, in Manchester. Previous to leaving, however, he said to the landlady, Mrs Thomas, perhaps he might not be spared to return; and that these poor people should be provided for during the winter season, he would leave in her hands ten weeks' pay for them, to be distributed as by himself: this he accordingly did. On the following Monday his foreboding proved correct, and this truly benevolent person breathed his last at the house of his son, in Manchester.I like this man, my illustrious, charitable and eccentric forebear.
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| A portrait of Jeremy Bentham, looking remarkably the description of Ebenezer Thomson, with his large straw hat. |
The next bookseller's shop on the same side was that of Ebenezer Thomson and Sons, who occupied the shop No. 20, at the comer of Cromford Court, next to the one in which I was apprenticed, which was then No. 21, the numbers running consecutively at the time. In 1790 the same shop was occupied by James Thomson, bookseller. In 1810 it was divided into two shops, one being occupied by James Thomson and Son, the son being Ebenezer, who lived at the back of New Windsor, Salford. In 1815 the shop was restored to its original dimensions, and Ebenezer had the business to himself, the father having retired, and residing at " Cheetham Cottage Town," Red Bank. In 1824 the firm was still Ebenezer, but in 1829 it was, as I have stated, E. Thomson and Sons, and a year or two after was changed to James and Joseph Thomson. They were known as dealers in books on mechanics and the various branches of civil engineering as well as general literature, their stock of new and second-hand books being one of the largest in the provinces. Their printed catalogue in 1829 extended to something like 600 octavo pages, and contained the names of 20,000 volumes. They dealt also in stationery and stamps and did a good business in book- binding. The younger brother, Joseph, died some years since, but I had the pleasure of meeting with James three or four years ago, when he was staying at the same hotel in Southport as myself, his residence being near Bowness.
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| 'Reminiscences of Manchester Fifty Years Ago', J. T. Slugg, 1851 |
When he was 20 or 21, Ebenezer married Mary Anderson
These are the entries for their burials in the Rusholme Road Cemetery, Manchester.
[Transcription by Irene McIntyre]
This is the last Will and Testament of me Ebenezer Thomson of the City of Chester Gentleman I give devise and bequeath unto my sister Sarah Smith widow and her assigns during the term of her natural life all that messuage or dwelling house which she now resides in situate in New Windsor Salford in the County of Lancaster And I also give grant and devise unto my said Sister Sarah Smith and her assigns for the term of her natural life one clear yearly annuity rent charge or sum of forty pounds to be issuing and payable out of all and every my messuages or dwellinghouses in Salford aforesaid except the said messuage above mentioned the said annuity or rent thereof to be paid to my said sister by equal half yearly payments the first whereof to be made at the expiration of six calendar months next after my decease and always to be paid free and clear of and from property tax and all other taxes charges or impositions whatsoever to be taxed charged or assessed upon the said annuity or upon my said Sister in respect thereof by authority of Parliament or otherwise whosoever And if it shall happen that the said annuity or rent charge of forty pounds or any part thereof shall be behind or unpaid by the start of twenty days next after either of the said days whereon the same is made payable and ought to be paid as aforesaid then and from thenceforth and from time to time as often as the same or any part thereof shall be so in arrears and unpaid it shall and may be lawful to and for my sister Sarah Smith and her assigns upon the said messuages or dwellinghouses every or any of them (except the said messuage before mentioned) to enter and [distrain] and distress and distresses therein found to take load drive and carry away and to impound detain or otherwise to sell and dispose of the same until thereby or otherwise she and they shall be lawfully satisfied and paid over annually or yearly rent charge or as much thereof as shall be in arrears together with all costs charges and expenses whatsoever as shall be occasioned by such outlay distress and sale I give and devise all my messuages or tenements land chief rents and hereditaments with the appurtenances situate in Salford aforesaid and in Manchester Chorlton on Medlock Ardwick Levenshulme and elsewhere in the County of Lancaster and also the said messuage or dwellinghouse devised to my said Sister Sarah Smith for life subject to her interest therein And all other my real estate and personal of what nature or kind soever or wheresoever situate not herein otherwise devised or bequeathed unto my sons James Thomson and Joseph Thomson their heirs and assigns for ever equally between them as tenants in common and not joint tenants I give and bequeath unto my Grandsons Andrew Patten and James Thomson Patten their executors or administrators or assigns all my shares stock and interest in the London and North Western Railway Company or any other Railway Company equally or between them share and share alike and in case either or both of them my said Grandsons shall die in my lifetime leaving lawful issue then I do hereby direct that the presumptive share or shares of them or him so being as aforesaid shall go and be payable equally amongst his or their child or children if any and if but one such child then the whole to such one child I give and bequeath to the Reverend William McMorrow of Manchester in the County of Lancaster the sum of nineteen pounds and nineteen shillings. I appoint the said sons James Thomson Joseph Thomson and William McMorrow Executors of this my will and I do hereby revoke and make void all former and other will and wills by me at any time heretofore made and do declare this to be my Last Will and Testament In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand on this and the other side of this sheet of paper this twenty first day of August in the year of out Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty one.
~~~ Ebenezer Thomson ~~~ Signed by the said Ebenezer Thomson the Testator in the presence of us present at the same time was in this presence at the request and in the presence of each other have hereunto submitted our names as witness
T.H. Massey Solicitor Chester John Blake Confectioner Chester John Thompson Bookseller Chester
Proved at London the 10th July 1852 before the Judge by the Oaths of James Thomson and Joseph Thomson the sons and the Reverend William McMorrow the Executors to whom administration was granted having been first sworn by _____ duly to administer.
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| 'The New Manchester Guide', 1815 |
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| From the title page of Joseph Aston's "A Picture of Manchester', 1826 |
Ebenezer had two sons, Joseph and James, and two daughters, Ellen and Mary.
Joseph Anderson Thomson married firstly Margaret Cuthbertson Sword, of a Glaswegian family. Their daughter Mary Anne Denistoun Thomson, born in 1832, married the Scots-born surgeon George Turnbull. The first son, Joseph James Thomson, born in 1833, married Emma Swindells of Manchester and had two sons: Professor Sir Joseph John Thomson, a Nobel Prize winner for Physics, and Frederick Vernon Thomson.
Joseph Anderson Thomson's second son was James Sword Thomson, born in 1835, and who married Harriet Hodgson. They had five sons and three daughters.
The third son, and the youngest, was Robert Augustus Thomson, born in 1838, who married Kezia Davies, and who had three daughters: Georgina Henrietta, Jemimah Beatrice, and Sarah Jane.
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| Extract from the will of Joseph Anderson Thomson concerning his youngest son Robert. |
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