Col. Richard Thompson

MP for Reading 1720-1722 and 1727-1734, grandfather of Frances Jennings (q.v.). Died in 1735 or 1736.

1. Jamaica merchant. Said to be the grandson of Sir Samuel Thompson of Bradfield, Berkshire, sheriff of London in 1688. Thompson bought the manors of Whitley and Coley on the outskirts of Reading and ‘informed the board of Trade in February 1711 that he did not intend to return to Jamaica’. In 1720 one of the eight patentees of the Royal Mining Company, formed to develop gold and silver mines in Jamaica. They invested their subscribers’ funds in the South Sea Company and went into liquidation.

2. Kent and Thompson were listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owners of 267 acres of land in St Andrew, 50 acres in St David and 1294 acres in St Thomas-in-the-East, total 1611 acres.

3. Will of Richard Thompson of [Coley] St Mary Reading Berkshire proved 12/09/1739. In the will he left his estates to his son Richard Nicoll Thompson and £4000 to each of his three daughters Jane, Frances and Anne. No further trace has been found of Richard Nicoll Thompson, and the History of Parliament entry for Richard Thompson shows only three daughters: presumably Richard Nicoll Thompson died young. Anne Thompson married Philip Jennings, later Sir Philip Jennings Clerke (q.v.).

1. R. S. Lea, 'Thompson, Richard (d. c.1735)', History of Parliament online, accessed 11/01/2016.

2. A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

3. PROB 11/698/102.