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From The Great Migration Begins:
Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volume 3
ORIGIN: Plymouth, Devonshire
MIGRATION: 1623
FIRST RESIDENCE: Piscataqua
REMOVES: Thompson's Island, Boston Harbor, 1626
OCCUPATION: Apothecary. Agent for Gorges.
EDUCATION: His occupations of apothecary and of
agent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges both indicate that David
Thomson had considerable education.
ESTATE: On 16 November 1622 the Council for New
England granted David Thomson six thousand acres of land
and one island in New England [Council NE
73;
History of
Grants 28].
On 14 December 1622 David Thomson of Plymouth, England,
agreed to sail with two men in the Jonathan of
Plymouth to New England to find a suitable place to
begin a settlement. Abraham Colmer, Nicholas Sherwill
and Leonard Pomery, merchants of Plymouth, agreed to
send five more men, three in the Providence and
two in another sailing of the Jonathan of Plymouth
. Once landed the men were to choose the best
location and begin the plantation with buildings and a
division of six hundred acres. The remaining 5,400 acres
were to be divided in due time into four parts, Thomson
to have three of the four parts. At the end of five
years, the island to be divided into four parts, Thomson
to have three. Charges and profits were divided equally
on the six hundred acres [NHGR
2:1].
At his majority, "Mr. John Thomson, son and heir of
David Thomson, deceased" petitioned the General Court
saying that "the said David Thomson, in & about the year
1626 did take actual possession of an island in the
Massachusetts Bay, called Thomsons Island, & being then
vacuum domicilium & before the patent granted to
us of the Massachusets Bay, & did erect the form of a
habitation, &, dying soon after, left the petitioner an
infant, who, so soon as he came to age, did make his
claim formerly, & now again" [MBCR
3:129-30]. Not wishing to deny him his rights, the Bay
granted him the island called "Thomson's Iland" 13 May
1648 [MBCR
3:130].
BIRTH: Baptized St. James, Clerkenwell,
Middlesex, 17 December 1592, son of Richard and Florence
(Cromlan) Thomson [NHGR
9:115]. (This baptism has been deemed by Ralph E. and
Matthew R. Thompson to be that of the immigrant on the
assumption that Richard Thompson was a servant of the
Gorges family, tending to their London interests [Pascataway
39].)
DEATH: By 1628 (when "Mrs. Thomson" contributed
15s. to the fund for returning THOMAS MORTON to England
[Bradford
LB 43]).
MARRIAGE: St. Andrews, Plymouth, Devonshire, 18
July 1613 Amias Cole, born say 1593, daughter of William
Cole [NHGR
9:113]. She married (2) about 1630 Samuel Maverick (her
son John Thomson calls him "my father Mr. Samuell
Maverick" [Aspinwall
70]), son of Rev. JOHN MAVERICK . She was living 3
September 1672 when her son Nathaniel Maverick of
Barbados mentioned her in his will [NEHGR
69:158].
CHILDREN:
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i
ANN, bp. St. Andrews 1 October 1615; bur. there
14 October 1615. |
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ii
PRISCILLA, bp. St. Andrews 23 October 1616;
presumably living 1635 when her mother mentions
"her fatherless children" [Trelawny Papers 76-78], but no further
record. |
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iii
JOHN, bp. St. Andrews 5 January 1618/9; living
as late as 1651, called "John Thompson of
London" [
MBCR
3:130;
SLR
1:117, 3:103-04]. (Some have assumed that the
John Thompson who resided at Weymouth and Mendon
was the son of David Thompson, but in
1992 Douglas Richardson set forth cogent reasons
why these are two different men [
NHGR
9:110-16].)
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iv
ANN, bp. St. Andrews 22 November 1620; bur.
there 26 November 1620. |
ASSOCIATIONS: On 26 May 1648, Aspinwall received
two documents from "Amies or Emes" (Cole) (Thomson)
Maverick. The first stated that on 1 April 1615,
"William Cole of Plymouth in the County of Devon,
shipwright," and "David Thompson of Plymouth
aforesaid apothecary and Ems his now wife ... in
consideration of a marriage already had and solemnised
between the said David Thomson & Ems the daughter of the
said William" created a lease to several rooms in a
house in Plymouth "wherein the said William Cole now
dwelleth" for threescore years if all three should live
so long. The second document, dated 3 January 1625[/6],
stated that whereas "I W[illia]m Cole of Plimouth,
shipwright, have had & received of my daughter Amies
Thomson the sum of fifty pounds which money I was to
have towards the buying of my land upon condition that I
should make my land over to my daughter & her children,
which I have done as by my will appeareth, now I have
received of her above in writing of the sum of thirty
pounds, which I am to give an account for to her husband
David Thomson" [Aspinwall
128-30].
COMMENTS: In 1876 Charles Deane published a
lengthy account of the life of David Thomson, including
the full text of the indenture between David Thomson and
the other merchants of Plymouth [MHSP
14:358;
NHPP
25:663-709]. In 1973 Ralph E. Thompson and Matthew R.
Thompson compiled a history of Pascataway: De Facto
Capital of New England, 1623-1630 (Portsmouth, New
Hampshire [cited above as Pascataway]; this
narrative does an excellent job of pulling together all
the available evidence, but the authors sometimes
allowed their interpretations to go beyond the evidence.
CODES:
Aspinwall - " A Volume Relating to the
Early History of Boston Containing the Aspinwall
Notarial Records from 1644 to 1651," in Reports of
the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston,
Volume 32 (Boston 1903)
Bradford LB - Governor William
Bradford's Letter Book (Boston, 1906; reprint from
Mayflower Descendent, 1904-06)
Council NE - "Records of the Council
for New England," Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society, Meeting of April 24, 1867, pp.
53-131
History of Grants - Samuel F. Haven,
History of Grants under the Great Council for New
England . . . (Boston 1869)
MBCR - Records of the Governor and
Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England,
1628-1686, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, 5 volunes in 6
(Boston 1853-1854)
NEHGR - New England Historical and
Genealogical Register
NHGR - New Hampshire Genealogical
Register
SLR - Suffolk Deeds, Volumes 1
through 14 (Boston 1880-1906). Citations to later
volumes are from the microfilm copies of the originas.
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