Thompson, William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. K. Johnson, “THOMPSON, WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/thompson_william_8E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Militia officer, farmer, justice of the peace, miller, and politician; b. 17 June 1786 in New Brunswick, son of Cornelius Thompson and Rebecca —; m. by 1813 Jane Garden, and they had six sons and three daughters; d. 18 Jan. 1860 in Toronto Township, Upper Canada.
    • William Thompson was the son of Cornelius Thompson, lieutenant and adjutant of the 2nd battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, who settled near St Anne’s Point (Fredericton) in 1783. In 1808 Cornelius visited Upper Canada with Stephen Jarvis, whose cousin William was the provincial secretary. Personally recommended for 1,200 acres of land by Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore, Cornelius returned with his family the following year, proceeding from York (Toronto) to Grantham Township on the Niagara peninsula.
    • Despite the set-back in his fortunes as a result of the war and the responsibilities of a family, Thompson rapidly achieved a position of local prominence. In 1816 he became a justice of the peace and between then and 1838 received repeated commissions for the Gore and Home districts. In 1817 he and his brother Frederick erected a sawmill in nearby Trafalgar Township. William also served for many years as an officer of the West York militia. During the rebellion of 1837–38 he was on active service as colonel in command of his regiment in York County and at Chippawa. 
    • William Thompson also acted on occasion in a political role. In 1824 the inhabitants of the western part of the Home District unanimously nominated him to represent them in the assembly. He and Ely Playter were elected for the riding of York and Simcoe that July. Staunchly conservative, Thompson was a prominent member of the Church of England and a confidant of John Strachan and other members of the “family compact.” He frequently took part in the business of the house, particularly in matters affecting rural Upper Canada. Thompson’s support of the government élite, especially on the contentious alien question [see Sir Peregrine Maitland], was to lose him the sympathy of many of his American-born rural constituents. Rumours circulated, only to be denied in Robert Stanton’s U.E. Loyalist, that Thompson had “been attacked on his way home, in consequence of his vote on the Naturalization bill” in February 1827. The following year William Lyon Mackenzie, who was running in Thompson’s riding, gave a prominent position to his opponent’s voting record in the Colonial Advocate’s first “Black List.” Thompson withdrew shortly before the opening of the polls in the general election of 1828 which brought Mackenzie into the assembly for the first time. Thereafter Thompson attempted to regain his seat several times, without success.
  • Son of Proven Loyalist in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8382
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113311517/william-thompson