David Thompson (1798 – February 1871) was an American businessman. He was President of the

New York Life Insurance New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company and the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States, and is ranked #69 on the 2025 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total rev ...

and Trust Company.

Life

He was the son of Jonathan Thompson who was

Collector of the Port of New York The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import duties on foreign goods that entered the United States by ship at ...

during the administrations of Presidents

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

and

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

. He married Sarah Diodate Gardiner (ca. 1808-1891), and they had seven children. Thompson entered the office of his father after completing his education with a concentration in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

, and the

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. Two years later he became Cashier of the United States Customs House in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Prior to obtaining the presidency of New York Life Insurance, he served successively as Cashier of the Fulton Bank and Cashier of the Bank of America.

Sources

''The History of Long Island''
by Benjamin Franklin Thompson *"Obituary, David Thompson", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', February 24, 1871, pg. 4
His wife's death notice
in ''NYT'' on March 9, 1891 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, David American bankers 1798 births 1871 deaths New York Life Insurance Company 19th-century American businesspeople