Background
James, son of Thomas Thompson, proprietor of the Leicester Chronicle, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Garton of Halstead, Leicestershire, was born at Leicester on 6 December 1817. 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.
