Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
was an English journalist and local historian.
Life
James, son of Thomas Thompson, proprietor of the ''Leicester Chronicle,'' by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Garton of
Halstead
Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011Billesdon, and then under Charles Berry, minister of the Great Meeting at Leicester. He followed his father's profession of journalist, as a reporter, and then assisting in the editorial department. He soon became an able leader-writer, and for more than thirty years wrote nearly all the leading articles of the ''Leicester Chronicle,'' the chief liberal paper in Leicestershire, which had belonged to his father since 1813.
In 1841 Thompson became joint proprietor of the ''Chronicle'' with his father, and sole proprietor in 1864. In the same year he purchased the copyright of the ''Leicestershire Mercury,'' which he merged with the ''Leicester Chronicle.'' In politics he was a liberal and a reformer. He worked actively for the abolition of the corn laws and of church rates, and for the extension of the electoral franchise. For some time he was a member of the town council of Leicester; and he was one of the founders of the Mechanics' Institute there, and honorary curator of the Leicester Museum.
Works
Thompson in early life took a keen interest in the study of archaeology and antiquities. He began by publishing in his journal a series of ''Passages from the History of Leicester.'' In 1847, in conjunction with William Kelly, he arranged the ancient manuscripts which were lying in a state of disorder in the Leicester corporation muniment-room.
In 1849 he brought out a ''History of Leicester, from the time of the Romans to the end of the Seventeenth Century.'' This, his largest and most important work, was the fruit of much original research. In 1854–6 he edited the ''Midland Counties Historical Collector,'' of which only two volumes appeared. In 1867 he published ''An Essay on English Municipal History,'' a work which threw much new light on the origin, institution, and development of municipal government in Leicester and other ancient English towns. The manuscripts of the ancient merchant guild of Leicester gave him a mass of original materials for this book, which is referred to by
John Richard Green
John Richard Green (12 December 1837 – 7 March 1883) was an English historian.
Early life
Green was born on 12 December 1837, the son of a tradesman in Oxford, where he was educated, first at Magdalen College School, and then at Jesus C ...
and other writers (cf. Mrs. J. R. Green's Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, 1894, i. 235 seq.). In 1871 he issued a ''History of Leicester in the Eighteenth Century,'' supplementary to his earlier history.
Thompson was one of the founders of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society in 1855, and to its ''Transactions'' he contributed numerous papers and communications. He was also local secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, a member of the British Archæological Association, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. To ''
Notes and Queries
''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inner ...