Thompson One Name Study

They are recorded in Burke's General Armoury (1884):

Arms - Per fess ar and sa. a fess embattled counter-embattled between three falcons counterchanged, belled and jessled.

Crest - An arm embowed in armour quarterly or and az. holding in the gauntlet proper a broken lance.

They are said to be of Thomas Thompson of Bishopwearmouth but this may not be correct. In the Franks Collection (1904) in the British Museum, the arms of T. Thompson of Bishopwearmouth are quartering White, impaling Pemberton and quartering Jackson. The particular T. Thompson of Bishopwearmouth, County Durham married in 1814 Elizabeth daughter of Richard Pemberton (ref. 29292). Interestingly these arms use the same motto, "Dum Spiro Spero". Also in the Franks Collection, there are arms belonging to Henry Ayscough Thompson which are almost identical to those above except that the broken lance is not on a slope (ref. 29271). These arms however carry the motto "Fracta non victa" which presumably means "broken but not beaten".

There was a Thomas Thompson of Sunderland-near-the-Sea, gentleman, who in April 1762 had surrendered to him all copyhold premises held by the Rev. Henry Waistell and John Rosamon (Source: History and Antiquities of Sunderland etc. by Jeremiah William Summers 1858). The Burke Encyclopaedia of Heraldry also links the Arms to those of the Whites, the Pembertons and the Jacksons which concurs with the Franks Collection.

There was also a Thomas Thompson who married Elizabeth Chater, daughter of Dorothy Chater. This Thomas Thompson was apparently Elizabeth Chater's first husband, her second being John Thompson, probably the father of John Thompson, my great great great grandfather, who was great grandfather of Thomas Roe Thompson.

Mr Harold Storey writes that for my Great Grandfather, Thomas Roe Thompson, to have been entitled to these arms, he would have to have descended from the original grantee of the arms. According to "Armorial Families" they were granted by Norroy King of Arms in 1559. There is a line in Burke down to the Meysey-Thompson baronets, but there could be others. The College of Arms may have more information. But what Harold seems to be showing is the use of a "differenced" version of a basic coat of arms by various families of the same name; in other words, the Scottish system, see below, in unofficial use by the reiving families along the borders. These families did behave rather like clans in other non-legal activities too!

WILLIAM HENRY THOMPSON OF KILHAM, EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE

At Kilham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, there is a hatchment (funeral coat of arms) believed to be of William Henry Thompson, died 1861.

Kilham also appears in one of the arms below (Thompson of Hartsbourne)

This Coat of Arms has been passed to me by Mr John Charles Thomson of Blyth in Northumberland. He says that his family came from Scotland originally. The family motto as shown is 'Non Oblitus'. My Latin is a little rusty, but I believe it means something like "not forgotten" or "not to be forgotten".

It has been commented that the fact that the crest is a shield is some what unusual.

THOMPSON OF HARTSBOURNE

The Coat of Arms of Sir Thomas Raikes Lovett Thompson, 4^th Baronet, M.C. (1918), of Hartsbourne, Herts (Source: Burke's Peerage and Baronetage). The family motto is "Non quo sed quomodo".

Arms - Per fesse arg, and sa, & fesse counter-embattled, between three falcons jessed and belled or, all within a bordure engrailed, and all counterchanged; in the chief point, also within the bordure an anchor erect az., cable ppr. Crest - Out of a naval crown or, an arm in armour embowed ppr., garnished gold, the hand supporting a lance erect also ppr.

These arms descend from Richard Thompson, the 6th son of Richard Thompson of Kilham (1580 - 1650).

THOMPSON OF LONDON

The Coat of Arms of Sir Henry Francis Herbert Thompson, 2^nd Baronet, of Wimpole Street, London (Source: Burke's Peerage and Baronetage). The family motto is "Je veux do bonne guerre".

Arms - Sa., on a fess flory counterflory between three falcons jessed and belled arg., a torch fesswise of the field, fired ppr. Crest - In front of an arm, embowed in armour, the hand in a gauntlet holding a broken tilting spear, a staff fesswise entwined by a serpent all ppr.

This baronetcy is now extinct.

THOMPSON OF GUISELEY

The Coat of Arms of Sir Matthew William Thompson, 3^rd Baronet of Park Gate, Guiseley, Yorkshire (Source: Burke's Peerage and Baronetage). The family motto is "Wheare vertue lys, love never dys".

Arms - Azure, a bridge of three arches, pp.; in chief, a sun in spleandour between two mullets of six points, pierced or, and in base an eagle displayed, with two heads, arg. Crest - In front of the battlements of a tower ppr. a cubit arm, vested, az., charged with a mullet, as in the arms, the cuff arg., the hand ppr., holding five ears of wheat slipped, or.

Mr Stuart Thomson has written to me about his family Coat of Arms:

"My earliest known ancestor, Daniel Thomson born about 1676 in Kilmaurs, Ayr, died 1724 aged 48, in Kilmaurs, has a gravestone there with family details inscribed and a coat of arms whose provenance I have so far failed to establish.

I have no knowledge of heraldry so will describe it in lay terms.

A shield surmounted by a helmet with close visor. within the shield a cross with crosslets that is to say a cross whose horizontal longest arm is at the bottom and two shorter arms above each themselves crosses with a small arm. Also within two stars above the top bar, two crescents above the bottom bar. below the shield a motto "nec timeo nec spero", which I translate literally as "I neither hope nor fear". The main verb comes last in Latin. I take it to mean "I expect nothing out of life and fear nothing".

My father always referred to him as Sir Daniel but that could be because his father did and he had seen the gravestone and assumed his five times g grandfather must have been titled. They were farmers for many generations.

I would like to find an authoritative explanation of why a widow should have such a thing put on a gravestone if he were not entitled to it, which as far as the Lyon King of Arms Office in Edinburgh is concerned is the case. They have no record of it."

There are some interesting similarities between this shield and that of Thomson of Fairliehope, below, particularly the stars and the moons.

If anyone can shed any light on the mystery of this Thompson gravestone in Kilmaurs churchyard, Ayrshire, Scotland, could they please E-mail Mr Stuart Thomson at stuart@hycliff.demon.co.uk

The Scottish System

Mr Harold Storey has very kindly sent me this book plate of Lord Courtauld-Thompson. He says that the 1st and 4th quarterings are for Thomson. His father, surname Thomson was from Edinburgh and he assumes that the arms were granted in London since they don't follow the Scottish pattern where everybody of the same surname is assumed to descend from the original Clan Chief who will have had a simple shield. This shield goes down the senior male heir, who will always be the Chief. All other members of the "family" are entitled to apply for a "differenced" version of the Chief's shield. That shield will then pass to his eldest son (only), and so on. Younger sons (and so junior branches) have to apply for a differenced version of their father's arms. So the farther away you are in blood from the chief, the more differenced your shield will be, but is should still be recognisable as a variation of the Chief's shield.

If it ever existed, the original Thomson shield will have been a stag's head with 2 or 3 small charges. courthom.jpg (219727 bytes)

Thomson, Thoms and Macthomas
Mr Harold Storey has also sent me an article from "The Double Treasure", the magazine of the Heraldry Society of Scotland No.17 (1995) entitled "Thomson, Thoms and Macthomas" written by John Hamilton Gaylor. In the article, Mr Gaylor states that the commonest versions of the name are Thomson and Thompson, and arms for eight of them were matriculated in the early years of the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, which opened in 1672. The coats show a consistent Thomson them - argent, a stag's head cabossed either gules or proper, and on a chief either azure or gules various small charges - which was maintained in fifty one out of another fifty three matriculations down to 1973. The Thomsons, larger than many names in the number of their matriculations, therefore demonstrably comprise a clan, deficient only in never having had a chiefly line recognised by the Lord Lyon. Mr Naylor goes on to state that the arms of Thoms and Thom are quite different....On armorial evidence we have ... three distinct and independent groups, Thomson, Thoms and M'Combie - and assorted Thomases.... Another name derived from Thomas ... was MacTavish. The only arms matriculated from the name down to 1973 were two coats, one of which was a differenced version of the other, showing them to be cadets of Campbell. The point of interest was that the basic gyronny coat of Campbell of Lochow was simply quartered with typical Thomas arms. It is said that MacTavishes regard themselves as a clan rather than as a sept of Campbell. If this is so, perhaps they should make common cause with the Thomsons, a name adopted by many MacTavishes on emigrating from the Highlands, and seek to establish a chief whose arms would be quite distinct from, and on the armorial evidence, more appropriate than those of a cadet of Mackintosh, from which the arms of MacThomas of Finegrand were to some extent derived.
Thomson of Fairliehope, 1672-7	Thoms of Aberlemno, 1881
Macthomas of Finegand, 1967	M'Combie of Easterskene, 1883
Miller-Thomas of Ley, 1939	Rokeby-Thomas, 1970

Motto

Other Coats of Arms