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Thomas ThomsonFRSEFSA Scot (10 November 1768 – 2 October 1852) was a Scottish advocate, antiquarian and archivist who served as Principal Clerk of Session (1828–1852) and as secretary of the literary section of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1812–20).[1]
Thomas Thomson was born in Dailly manse on 10 November 1768, the eldest son of Rev Thomas Thomson, minister of Dailly in Ayrshire, and his second wife, Mary, daughter of Francis Hay. John Thomson was a younger brother. After attending the parish school of Dailly, he entered the University of Glasgow at age 13, where he graduated with an MA on 27 April 1789. He attended classes in theology and law at the University of Edinburgh from 1789 to 1791. He passed the Scottish bar as an advocate on 10 December 1793.[2]
His early Edinburgh address was 19 North Castle Street.[3] Here he was a neighbour and close friend to Walter Scott, at that time also a fellow advocate.[4]
Thomson acquired a practice at the bar, particularly in cases demanding legal learning. Legal and historical antiquities later absorbed his attention. His main role was deputy clerk-register of Scotland, a new post to which he was appointed on 30 June 1806. His work mainly consisted of reforming the system of public registries and the method of the custody of records, in rendering these records accessible to research, in rescuing and repairing old records, and in editing the acts of the Scottish parliament and other governmental records under the authority of the Record Commission.[4]
In 1807 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Playfair, Sir James Hall and Thomas Allan. He served as Secretary to the Society from 1812 to 1820.[2]
In February 1828 Thomson was chosen one of the principal clerks of the court of session. On the institution of the Bannatyne Club in 1823 he had been chosen vice-president, and on the death of Scott in 1832 he succeeded as president. Thomson, however, was lax on finance. After an inquiry into the accounts of the register office in 1839 he was removed from the office of deputy clerk-register.[4] At this time he was living at 127 George Street in Edinburgh.[5]
Thomson died at Shrub Hill House, Leith Walk, Edinburgh, on 2 October 1852.[4] He is buried in Dean Cemetery in the section known as "Lord's Row".
He was succeeded as Principal Clerk of Session by Cosmo Innes.[6]
In 1836 he married Anne Reed.
For research in the register office Thomson prepared some manuals:[4]
His various Reports appeared from 1807. Of works published by Thomson for the Record Commission, the major one was The Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1424–1707, vols 2–11 (1814–1824). Vol. 1, containing the Regiam Majestatem, with the oldest recorded Proceedings and Acts of Parliament, was published last; and, although almost complete before 1841, when Thomson's connection with the register office ceased, did not appear until 1844, when it was edited, with additions, by Cosmo Innes.[4]
Other works published under the authority of the Record Commission were:[4]
Other related works mainly derived from the same sources, were:[4]
Thomson also edited the Memoirs of Sir George Mackenzie (Edinburgh, 1821); and Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George Baillie of Jerviswood, and of Lady Grissell, by their Daughter, Lady Murray (Edinburgh, 1822); and he published:[4]
For the Bannatyne Club he also edited:[4]
In 1800 Thomson was chosen to edit an edition of Lord Hailes's Works. It never appeared; but the edition of Hailes's Annals and Historical Tracts (1819) acknowledged Thomson's help. A close associate of Francis Jeffrey and other projectors of the Edinburgh Review, Thomson contributed three papers (on Erasmus Darwin's Temple of Nature (1803); Anna Seward's Memories of the Past (1804); and John Mason Good's Life of Alexander Geddes (1804)); and occasionally undertook the editorship for Jeffrey.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Thomson, Thomas (1768-1852)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co.