THOMPSON, WILLIAM (1712?–1766?), poet, born at Brough in Westmoreland in 1712 or 1713, was the second son of Francis Thompson (1665–1735), vicar of Brough, by his wife, the widow of Joseph Fisher [q. v.], archdeacon of Carlisle. William was educated at Appleby, and matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 26 March 1731, graduating B.A. in 1735, and M.A. on 26 Feb. 1738–9. He was elected a fellow of his college, and succeeded to the rectory of Hampton Poyle with South Weston in Oxfordshire.
While still an undergraduate, in 1734, he wrote ‘Stella, sive Amores, tres Libri,’ and two years later, ‘Six Pastorals,’ but considered neither production worthy of publication. In 1745, while at Hampton Poyle, he published ‘Sickness, a Poem’ (London, 4to), in which he paid a tribute to the memory of Pope and Swift, both recently dead. In 1751 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Oxford professorship of poetry against William Hawkins (1722–1801) [q. v.], and in the same year published ‘Gondibert and Bertha,’ a tragedy (London, 8vo), the subject of which was taken from D'Avenant's poem ‘Gondibert.’ In 1756, on the presentation to the university of the Pomfret statues, he wrote ‘Gratitude’ (Oxford, 8vo), a poem in honour of the donor, Henrietta Louisa Fermor, countess dowager of Pomfret [q. v.] In 1758 he published ‘Poems on several Occasions’ (London, 8vo). Thompson was a close imitator of Spenser, and marred his work by the needless use of archaic words and phrases. His ‘Hymn to May,’ his ‘Nativity,’ and his poem on ‘Sickness’ were once highly esteemed. He died about 1766, and his library was sold by Thomas Davies (1712?–1785) [q. v.] in 1768. In 1753 he superintended an edition of Joseph Hall's ‘Virgidemiarum,’ and at his death he left manuscript notes and observations on William Browne's ‘Works,’ which were revised and published by Thomas Davies in his edition of Browne's ‘Works’ (London, 1772, 8vo). Chalmers has confused William Thompson with Anthony Thompson, dean of Raphoe, who died on 9 Oct. 1756 (Cotton, Fasti Eccl. Hib. 1860, v. 265).
[Chalmers's English Poets, 1810; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Notes and Queries, II. xi. 49, 183, III. i. 220, VIII. iii. 306; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 636.]
THOMPSON, WILLIAM (1730?–1800), portrait-painter, was born in Dublin about 1730. He received his artistic education in London, and does not seem to have exhibited his works elsewhere. Between 1760 and 1782 he exhibited forty-three portraits at the Society of Artists, of which he was for some time secretary, and one portrait at the Free Society of Artists. Though valuable as likenesses, his portraits do not show much artistic merit. A couple of them were engraved in mezzotint. Having married a wealthy lady, he temporarily abandoned his profession, but got into debt and was imprisoned. His noisy protests against his incarceration earned for him some notoriety. After the death of his first wife he married another rich woman, and was enabled to retire from active work. He was connected with the notorious house in Soho Square kept by Mrs. Theresa Cornelys [q. v.], where he founded and carried on a school of oratory. He died suddenly in London early in 1800.
He published ‘An Enquiry into the Elementary Principles of Beauty in the Works of Nature and Art,’ and also, anonymously, in 1771, ‘The Conduct of the Royal Academicians while members of the Society of Arts, from 1760 to their expulsion in 1769.’
[Bryan's Dict. of Painters, ed. Graves, vol. ii.; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Algernon Graves's Dict. of Artists.]
THOMPSON, WILLIAM (1805–1852), naturalist, son of a linen merchant in Belfast, was born in that city on 2 Dec. 1805, and, after school education, was apprenticed to the linen business in 1820. For a time he carried on his father's business, but, meeting with little success, he abandoned it and devoted himself to science. From boyhood he was fond of observing birds and insects, and after his indentures terminated in 1826 he gave more and more time to natural history. In 1826 he went a tour of four months on the continent, and in the following year published on 13 Aug. his first paper, ‘On the Birds of the Copeland Isles.’ In 1833 he contributed ‘Notes on Sterna Arctica’ to the Zoological Society of London. When the British Association met at Glasgow in 1840 his ‘Report on the Fauna of Ireland—Division Vertebrata,’ attracted much attention. He went a voyage to the Levant in 1841 with Edward Forbes [q. v.], and made some observations on migratory birds, and from 1841 to 1843 he made
