Robert Thomson led an extraordinary life. Amongst his many exploits, he emigrated to America, fought in the English Civil War, helped to run the East India Company, and obtained vast lands in America.
He was baptized at Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire in 1622, and named after his father, Robert Thomson of Cheshunt. His mother was formerly Elizabeth Halfhide of Watton. Robert senior had only just risen to gentleman status, his father Maurice having been a tenant and land agent of the Cecils at Cheshunt. He inherited property called Harvey’s in Watton High Street from his paternal grandmother Katherine Harvey. He also held land as a tenant from the Boteler family of Watton Woodhall. Robert senior acted as a local attorney and churchwarden, but appears to have had no great ambition unlike his five sons – Maurice, George, Paul, William and Robert.
The eldest son Maurice emigrated to Virginia in 1617 when he was 13, and was followed later by three of his brothers – George, Paul and William. Robert emigrated to Boston sometime in the late 1630s. Maurice, who made himself known to historians as an international entrepreneur and merchant, broke into the Virginia tobacco trade and became, by modern standards, a multi-millionaire. He was the centre of a major work by Robert Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, written in the 1970s. Of the others little has been written. Paul died young, but the other four all returned to England between 1640-42 and were active in support of parliament in the civil wars 1642-7 and 1648. They all supported the Republic and Robert supported the Protectorate. They also became involved in the East India Company, Maurice and William becoming Governor and Robert Deputy Governor.
Service during the Civil War
When Robert Thomson first emigrated to America in the late 1630s he was about 16 years of age. He settled in Massachusetts, possibly working as an agent for Maurice in the lucrative coastal trade, which Maurice had established from Virginia to Maine between 1620-38. Many puritan emigrants from Hertfordshire went to Massachusetts in the 1630s, some of them actually being transported in one of Maurice’s ships. Maurice also attempted to establish a fishery at Cape Ann, north of Boston, and Robert may have been involved in this.
Robert certainly established himself in Boston, since he purchased the Old Meeting House in the centre of town, in what later became State Street. He still held it in the 1660s and by then had established some important contacts in New England, which he was later to take up to his advantage. He also established interests in the newly emerging colony of Connecticut, recently founded by, among others, Samuel Stone of Hertford. Robert may well have known Stone both in England and in America, where he and Maurice supplied the colonists with vital manufactured goods. However, like his other brothers, Robert returned in the early 1640s to side with the English parliamentarian opposition in their struggle with Charles I.
Before the outbreak of the civil war in England, Robert joined Maurice in the so-called “Additional Sea Adventure to Ireland”, which was designed to try and defeat the Irish Catholic rebels who had massacred Protestants in 1641. By July 1642 Robert, now aged 20, was a junior captain of a ship used for harassing the rebel strongholds on the coast, and relieving and supplying the Protestant armies fighting them. At one point he lost contact with the main fleet, but was found safe and sound at Kinsale. All the Thomson brothers invested in the expedition – Robert subscribed £100 (now the value would be about £40,000) – and they later got a share of the land in Ireland confiscated from the rebels. This may have whetted their appetite for later land speculation.
Robert had returned from Ireland by 29 September 1642 and joined a group of Londoners who were sent to Somerset to seize Royalists at the start of the Civil War. He reported to the House of Commons on 12 October 1642 that he “had with much difficulty and danger taken Sir Edward Radgar, Sir Edward Berkly and certain others of those that were the principal incendiaries of discord in that county.” In 1643 he gave evidence in a case brought by the local Hertfordshire Sequestration Committee against Sir John Boteler of Watton Woodhall, his father’s landlord. He said he had been in Watton in the previous August and had been invited to Sir John’s for dinner, where he had heard
Sir John speak in defence of the Commission of Array but it being about a twelvemonth since, he remembreth not what particular words he spake, and that he spake in a flighting manner of the militia, but knoweth not in particular what words he used.
This referred to an incident when Sir John had verbally attacked the Hertford parliamentary militia and had tried to put the King’s Commission of Array into effect by getting Hertford men to join the King. Although Robert’s response was diplomatic, Sir John’s property in Watton (now Heath Mount School and grounds) was taken over by the Hertford Committee and the rents used to fight the royalists.
By March 1644 Robert was a captain in a London cavalry regiment of Sir William Balfour, the Major-General of horse under the parliamentary general Sir William Waller. The regiment was sent towards the royalist stronghold of Basing House in Hampshire. Robert, with two other captains and a total of 200 cavalrymen, were confronted by a group of Royalists of whom they killed 20. They then seized supplies which had been destined for the garrison in Basing. Twelve days later they confronted a larger group of Royalists at West Meon near Winchester and it was reported in a London newssheet that “Captain Robert Thompson bravely led a forlorn hope of musketeers and secured the possession of West Mean [Meon] for Waller.” This action may well have led to his promotion to the rank of Major, a title he used for the rest of his life.
In 1645 Robert served on a committee at Goldsmith’s Hall to round up the rest of the Royalists after the King’s defeat at the Battle of Naseby and again in the Second Civil War in 1648. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649 and the declaration of a Republic in England, Robert was appointed to a committee of merchants to reform the British navy and became a naval commissioner, with responsibility for organizing supplies and manpower. He was also appointed to a commission for the sale of prize ships seized by the navy, as well as writing detailed naval estimates for the following year.
As commissioner he took on a great deal of additional responsibility, including arbitrating among naval personnel during an incipient mutiny and planning the timber for building ships, including timber from Cheshunt and Enfield Parks, which had previously belonged to the King. He was helped in all of this by his elder brother, George, who had become MP for Southwark and Chairman of the Parliamentary Naval Committee. Over an 11 year period Robert gained immense experience as an administrator and had a great grasp of detail. This was necessary as from late 1653 the Republic gave way to the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell who decided it was necessary to expand the British navy to protect the country and its trade from a host of enemies.
Cromwell then used the navy to expand British sea power using Admiral Blake to clear the pirates out of the Mediterranean, blasting them from their base at Tangier and then sending expeditions to the Caribbean to counter the threat from the Spanish and in the process seizing Jamaica. As well as the Spanish, the navy also became involved in fighting the Dutch on three occasions in the 1650s, ’60s and ’70s.
Robert was responsible for much of the naval organization in the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652. The Dutch had a powerful navy which had to be countered both in the Channel and further afield. Robert had to supply fire ships and additional cannon from the London gun foundries for merchant ships to be converted into naval vessels. As administrators in the Navy Office, Robert and his colleagues had to act as middlemen between the ordinary men in the navy, dockyards and on board ship, and the ship builders, suppliers and the Council of State that sent out the orders. They had to provide men, food and tackle such as ropes and, in the process, help to negotiate an increase in the pay of the poor rope-makers.
The men in the Navy Office must have had a pretty thick skin as they had reports from Plymouth that: “There are ugly things committed here and at Falmouth by private men of war, to the dishonour of our nation and the prejudice of those in amity with us.” Robert also dealt directly with Admiral Blake, who wrote to the Committee of the Navy: “According to your desire signified by Major Thomson, I have ordered the commander of the ships there belonging to the state to take on board their additional number of men.” As a result of working so hard Robert got a bonus of £150 (equivalent to £6000 today) “for his extraordinary services as a commissioner.” When Cromwell died in 1658 Robert was obviously held in high regard, as he was allotted a place in Cromwell’s funeral procession. Robert and his colleagues laid solid foundations for the navy for which later Samuel Pepys and others got the credit.
Development of the American colonies
In 1659 Robert, now aged 37, appears to have been elected as an MP for Dartmouth in Richard Cromwell’s parliament, but as it was short lived, he probably never took his place. In 1660 the Republic came to an end and the Thomson brothers were probably fearful of what would happen to them when the King, Charles II, returned to England. However, Robert’s brother, William, was one of the MPs for London and he was sent over to invite Charles II to come to England. This probably meant that Robert was not going to be punished for supporting the Republic. Charles II was also not going to lose his head like his father, so was much more tolerant towards Nonconformists like Robert and his brothers. Although the Anglican Church was fully restored and the Royalists in parliament passed laws against the Nonconformists, Charles allowed them to worship, despite the ultra-royalist attempts to persecute them.
After the Restoration Robert lived with his brothers at Lee in Kent, but later established himself in the then village of Newington Green north of London, where a number of important Nonconformists dwelt outside the control of the City. He had married Frances Chambers in 1646 and they had at least three sons and four daughters, his son Joseph becoming a merchant in Hackney, and his grandson Joseph becoming a director of the Bank of England in the 18th century. His life at Newington Green was an escape from his other activities in the City, and other Nonconformists, or Dissenters as they were called, also established meeting houses or chapels. They also established schools, known as “dissenting academies”, one of which was attended by the young Daniel Defoe, with whom Robert was to have dealings later.
A Psalter translated into Wompanoag language of the Massachusetts Indians, produced by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
Having survived the Restoration, Robert developed his interests in religion, in property speculation and in the East India Company. As part of his religion, he had become involved in spreading the gospel amongst the Native American Indians in New England. He and his brother William were among the original sponsors of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel which had been set up in 1649 and he retained his connection until his death. They supported the construction in 1655 of the Indian College at Harvard, which had been established in 1636, the Reverend Chauncy of Ware being its second President. Robert therefore may have known Chauncy both in Ware and subsequently when he had gone to Massachusetts. Despite losing his place on the governing body of the Society at the Restoration, Robert gained it back in 1668. He was finally elected governor of the Society, then renamed the New England Company, in 1692, being succeeded on his death by his son-in-law William Ashhurst, his own son Joseph becoming Treasurer in 1702.
Robert retained other important connections with America throughout his life. In the early 1660s he was clearly worried about his position in England and bought up properties in and around Boston as a possible bolthole if anti-republican sentiment threatened him. He continued to purchase more properties into the 1680s, when it appeared that the Catholic brother of Charles II, the future King James II, would come to the throne. On 3 May 1682 William Mumford of Boston, mason, and Ruth, his wife, conveyed to John Richards of Boston, as agent or attorney-in-fact for Major Robert Thomson of London, merchant, land in the North End of Boston “with the dwelling house thereon standing.” Richards acted as Robert’s land agent, buying up more properties and mortgages, and also handling money on his behalf for the New England Company to channel into Harvard and the education of the Indians. The General Court or parliament of Massachusetts then appointed the Superintendent of the Indians; first Humphrey Atherton, then Daniel Gookin. Robert was later to develop closer ties with them in various land deals across New England.
The American colonies had been effectively independent during the Civil War period, but they now needed to renew their charters with the new King Charles II. Robert’s Nonconformity was similar to the colonists’ brand of Puritanism and he developed close relationships with the ruling elites, helping them to renew their charters. As early as 1651 he had purchased from the evangelist Henry Whitfield, his 500 acre estate at Guilford, Connecticut, and in 1657 another 500 acre estate at Shawshin near Boston from Daniel Gookin. The latter also helped him purchase a warehouse for storing the goods Robert traded with Boston.
Robert was so trusted that he effectively became the London agent for Massachusetts and Connecticut, and became part of an arbitration team to decide the boundaries between them. In 1662, feeling threatened by anti-dissenter legislation, he nearly emigrated to America for the second time. However, things improved in England and Robert expanded his speculative activities in America, becoming involved in a number of land purchasing and land confiscation schemes from the Indians. He joined the Atherton Company, which bought lands from the Indians and then, after a major conflict between the colonists and the Indians known as King Philip’s war in 1675-7, joined syndicates confiscating land from them. Initially he obtained 2000 acres formerly held by the Nipmuck Indians and then helped develop the town of New Oxford. He enabled 30 families of Protestant Huguenot refugees from France to settle there, and the 6000 acres Robert was given, straddled the boundary between Massachusetts and Connecticut. Later in the 18th century this land was settled and the people named their new town “Thompson” after him.
Further north in Massachusetts he was involved in a land speculation scheme along the Merrimac River on the New Hampshire border. He invested in this and gained the rights to a further 5000 acres. He thus held at least 13,000 acres in New England, though some was later sold, while the remainder was split up among his children on his death. He also knew William Penn and purchased, with others, 10,000 acres further south in Penn’s new colony of Pennsylvania, in an area that later became the town of Vincent in Chester County. There was also a great speculative scheme called the New Mediterranean Sea Company which involved a vast purchase of land from the Indians, in what later became upper New York State, the “New Mediterranean Sea” being their name for Lake Erie. At one point in the 1680s it was rumoured that Robert wanted to buy the whole of James Duke of York’s rights to New York, but later sold his share in the Mediterranean Sea Company. If he had retained all his land in America, his descendants would have been multi-billionaires.
The East India Company
Apart from his land speculation in America, Robert’s main interest became trade through the East India Company. In the 1640s and ’50s his brother Maurice managed to get into the East India Company as a Director, followed by brothers William and Robert. By 1657 Maurice had become its Governor. Also during the 1650s the brothers became involved in a colonization scheme in the Indian Ocean and it is likely that Robert travelled to Madagascar and India as captain of a ship called the Assada Merchant, but the colonization scheme came to nothing. After the Restoration Maurice took a back seat job as the head of the economic committee of the Company, and basically organized and ran its finances. Robert and his brother William also became Directors of the Company and in 1667 Robert was asked by the Company to be one of their negotiators at the Treaty of Breda, which concluded the Second Anglo-Dutch War. On his return, he was given a £250 bonus by the Company, partly to cover the losses he made by not being able to trade while representing their interests.
Later the same year he and other Directors negotiated with the government over the Company’s agreement to take over the management of Bombay, which had been given as a dowry to Charles II by the Portuguese on his marriage to Catherine of Braganza. Robert and colleagues negotiated with Charles that they should receive Bombay for nothing, provided the Company loaned the extravagant King £50,000 at 6% interest per annum. As a result the Company’s foothold in India was established and was to last until the 1850s when its possessions were taken over by the Crown. Robert and colleagues then had the job of organizing the building of the fort and a new city in Bombay (now of course Mumbai). They also drew up a constitution for the colony and a system of justice. The plans for the town were based on those used for the rebuilding of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666.
Robert’s brother William served as Governor of the East India Company on four separate two-year terms and Robert was elected as the Deputy Governor for the first time in 1670, following his successful establishment of Bombay. As the Deputy Governor, Robert operated out of the Old East India House in London, holding stocks and shares in the Company then worth £4600 (now the equivalent of about £1.85 million). Having served a two-year term as Deputy Governor, he received another bonus of £200. His negotiating skills were clearly valued as he was put on a small delegation to meet Charles II and to negotiate another loan to him and then to negotiate the terms of trade for the East India Company.
In 1674 Robert was elected as Deputy Governor again and used his position to order the building of ships, which he then sold to the Company. He also got various relatives accepted as Directors, including his nephews Samuel and John and his son-in-law, William Ashhurst. Even though there were rumours that Robert and others were engaged in corruption, it was investigated and nothing was proved. However, he was privately supplying forts in the Far East with guns and ammunition, including Fort St George at Madras. In 1679 Robert was chosen as Deputy for the third time, becoming Acting Governor whilst the Governor was ill. When the Governor died, Robert’s brother William was elected Governor. Thus the brothers held the top two posts in the company. They were clearly successful as William declared an initial dividend of 20% and later a further 20%. At the end of his term of office Robert was given a further £100 bonus.
In 1682 Robert, aged 60, was elected for the fourth and final time as Deputy Governor. His role in the East India Company had been far more than this. He had been a negotiator, arbiter, planner, ship broker and trader. He had negotiated directly with the King, attended an international peace conference, and planned the Company’s new trading base at Bombay. He was a man who had interest on three continents, owned thousands of acres of land in New England, a town named after him in Connecticut, and a grandson who became one of the Governors of the Bank of England. He died in his bed in 1694, aged 72, having been soldier and sea captain and having been to America and back again. That was not a bad record for the fifth son of a minor gentleman from Watton-at-Stone in Hertfordshire.
Sources of Reference
Manuscript Collections
British Library India Office Papers B34 ff3-5; Minutes East India Company 1674-76 (294, 300, 301, 302)
Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Charles I & Interregnum
Connecticut State Archives Guilford Parish, Land Records: Terriers Vol. 2 1686-1747 (14, 40)
HALS D/P118/1/1 Watton-at-Stone Parish Register
Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, Vol. V 1674-86
TNA: SP23/82 ff775-782: The charges against Sir John Boteler
Journals
Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol. XXIV, 1932 (Hartford, CT)
Commons Journals
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. 52, 1898 (Boston MA) (page 441)
Printed
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