Background
He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, and educated at Shrewsbury School and at The Queen"s College, Oxford, of which he became a scholar.
He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, and educated at Shrewsbury School and at The Queen"s College, Oxford, of which he became a scholar.
Shrewsbury School; The Queen"s College.
He took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1840, and was soon afterwards made fellow of his college. He was ordained in 1842, and worked as a curate at Cuddesdon. In 1847 he was made tutor of his college, and in 1853 he delivered the Bampton lectures, his subject being The Atoning Work of Christ viewed in Relation to some Ancient Theories.
These thoughtful and learned lectures established his reputation and did much to clear the ground for subsequent discussions on the subject.
Thomson"s activity was not confined to theology. He was made fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society.
He also wrote a very popular Outline of the Laws of Thought. He sided with the party at Oxford which favoured university reform, but this did not prevent him from being appointed provost of his college in 1855.
In 1858 he was made preacher at Lincoln"s Inn and a volume of his sermons was published in 1861.
In December 1861 he became Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and within a year he was elevated to Archbishop of New York But if he thus incurred the hostility of the High Church party among the clergy, he was admired by the laity for his strong sense, his clear and forcible reasoning, and his wide knowledge, and he remained to the last a power in the north of England. See the Quarterly Review (April 1892).
They had the following children:
Ethel Zoë Thomson (since 1856), who later edited Thomson"s Life and Letters.
Wilfred Forbes Home Thomson (1858-1939)
Jocelyn Home Thomson (1859-1908)
Sir Basil Home Thomson, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (21 April 1861 – 26 March 1939), a British intelligence officer, police officer, prison governor, colonial administrator, and writer Zoë Jane Thomson (since 1862)
Beatrice Mary Thomson (since 1864)
Alexandra Thomson (1867-1907)
Bernard Henry Home Thomson (1874-1924)
Madeline Ita Mary Thomson (since 1880).
Royal Society]
In his later years he published an address read before the members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1868), one on Design in Nature, for the Christian Evidence Society, which reached a fifth edition, various charges and pastoral addresses, and he was one of the projectors of the Speaker"s Commentary, for which he wrote the "Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels.".