Note 64 — Chapter VIII

Dr. Doddridge, in his “Life of Colonel Gardiner,” alludes to Mr. Thompson when he says, ‘The conversion of Colonel Gardiner is not altogether singular. There is, at least, a second, whose story may be told whenever the Established Church shall lose one of its brightest living ornaments, and one of the most useful members which that, or perhaps any Christian communion, can boast.’ Remarking on this passage, the late Mr. Palmer, of Hackney, in his correspondence with Mr. Newton, has supposed Mr. Grimshaw was the clergyman referred to; but Mr. Davidson, who, in June, 1748, had the account from Dr. Doddridge’s own mouth, says it was Mr. Thompson. Mr. Hervey, during his residence at Bideford, was intimate with Mr. Thompson, to whose revisal were submitted his “Meditations and Reflections,” and the first volume of his “Meditations” was dedicated to Mr. Thompson’s eldest daughter. Mr. Thompson died in 1781, and his widow, a very pious and amiable woman, in 1786. (See some interesting particulars of his life in “Zion’s Trumpet,” a periodical published in 1800). His letter to Dr. Watts, printed in “Dr. Gibson’s Memoirs,” is well worth perusal, and a volume of his religious poems was published without his name, by the Rev. Samuel Furlong, of St. Roche. Mr. Thompson lost his sight several years before his death; and, although he had joined himself to a Church of the United Brethren, retained his living, and continued active and useful in his parish. He was a visitor and correspondent of the Countess, and a man of lively passions and of jocular discourse, and his poetical abilities were considerable. When Mr. Whitefield or Mr. Wesley visited Cornwall, he itinerated with them, and was made instrumental in the conversion of his neighbour, the Rev. W. Hill, of Tavistock.