|
THOMPSON, JAMES,
soldier and office holder; b. 1733 in Tain, Scotland, son of James
Thompson; d. 25 Aug. 1830 at Quebec.
James Thompson probably came from a Jacobite family subjected to
repression by the English after the battle of Culloden in 1746. He must
have studied civil engineering, since he later put his knowledge in that
field at the service of the British army. Like many young men from
war-impoverished Scotland who were attracted by the promise of land
grants, he enlisted in 1757 in the 78th Foot, known as Fraser’s
Highlanders, which had been raised to fight in North America. He chose
the company commanded by his cousin, Captain Charles Baillie, who made
him a sergeant and promised him an officer’s commission in the event of
an opening. Baillie’s death the following year put an end to his chances
of promotion.
In 1758 Thompson participated with his regiment in the siege of
Louisbourg, Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), during which he learned how
to make fascines. He took part in the capture of Quebec in 1759, and in
the surrender of Montreal the following year. In the autumn of 1760 he
was quartered at Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud and became friends
with the family of Michel Blais, a prominent farmer. Returning to Quebec
for the winter, he was temporarily assigned to the military engineering
service and was in charge of 200 soldiers building fascines near the
Rivière Saint-Charles.
When the war ended in 1763, the 78th Foot was demobilized. Thompson
remained at Quebec, as a clerk of works with the engineering corps. He
was under the orders of Captain John Marr until 1772, but he does not
seem to have had steady employment. In July 1770 Marr noted that
Thompson had been paid only sporadically since March 1769 and it had
been necessary to stop projects after the commander-in-chief refused to
approve a pay-roll signed by Thompson. Thompson had married, probably
shortly after the war, but his wife and their six children died before
the American invasion in 1775–76.
When Marr went to Scotland on leave in 1772, the military authorities
decided to put Thompson, a civilian, at the head of the military
engineering service, rather than appoint an infantry or artillery
officer, the usual practice when there was no officer available from the
Royal Engineers. Promoted overseer of works at double his former salary,
Thompson carried out his duties for three and a half years with no
assistant. He supervised repairs to military and government buildings
and fortifications, made up payrolls, prepared estimates, bought
construction materials, and negotiated contracts. His engineering office
at Quebec being the only one for the whole colony, in 1773, for example,
he dealt with the contract to build supply depots for the troops at
Trois-Rivières.
When the Americans invaded, Thompson was responsible for readying the
fortifications of Quebec for a siege. He put up stockades where the
fortifications were not high and barricades at the edges of Lower Town
and at the top of the rise leading to Upper Town. After the enemy’s
unsuccessful attack during the night of 30–31 Dec. 1775, Thompson saw to
the burial in the Saint-Louis bastion of Richard Montgomery, the
American general killed in the fighting, and kept his sword as a
souvenir.
In June 1776, when reinforcements arrived, Thompson was confirmed in his
duties by William Twiss, the officer of the Royal Engineers who took
command of the military engineering service. The state of war led to a
multiplication of defensive works. In addition to supervising the
personnel at Quebec, Thompson carried out special missions in the
countryside. In 1780 he went to La Malbaie, which was on Major John
Nairne’s seigneury, to organize the construction of barracks for
American prisoners. Then he negotiated contracts for putting up military
buildings in Saint-Thomas parish (at Montmagny), where German troops
were quartered.
After the war, in 1784, Thompson investigated a claim by James Cuthbert,
the seigneur of Berthier, for £10,000 for damages caused by the British
army. He proved it was unjustified. The commander-in-chief, Frederick
Haldimand, was satisfied with Thompson’s services and recommended to his
successors that he be retained in his post despite the cuts that came
with the return of peace. Thompson was worried, however, since in 1785
he had to ask the Board of Ordnance to confirm his appointment. He noted
his activities in his diary in order to be able to justify his job and
in the end he was successful.
On 6 Dec. 1780 Thompson married Frances (Fanny) Cooper in the Anglican
church at Quebec. They had nine children, three of whom died in infancy.
All but the eldest were baptized in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. The
family lived in the former episcopal palace, where the military
engineers had offices, until 1788. Having received a living allowance
that year, Thompson took up residence on Rue Saint-Louis, and then on
Rue Sainte-Angèle. He bought a lot at the corner of Rue Sainte-Ursule
and Ruette des Ursulines in 1791 and had a house built in 1793; his
descendants would live there until 1957. Thompson, however, considered
his income insufficient. In 1799 he asked for and obtained a 50 per cent
increase in salary in consideration of his long service record and his
large family. He had hoped for careers as engineering officers for his
sons. Through Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, he made
efforts to have them admitted to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich
(London). But candidates had to be between 14 and 16 years of age, and
his three eldest sons had passed the maximum age before his plans could
be carried out. Only the youngest, George, was admitted, in 1804, thanks
to the support of Robert Mathews, Haldimand’s former military secretary,
and Colonel Twiss. He became an officer in the Royal Regiment of
Artillery in 1808, while James and William Alexander went into the
commissariat service and John Gawler became a lawyer and later a judge.
One of Thompson’s daughters married a merchant and the other a
schoolteacher.
Thompson belonged to the middle class. In addition to his house, from
1795 he owned a property in Armagh Township, a land grant that he had
applied for jointly with Michel Blais as early as 1767. He earned £174 a
year, a sum including the living allowance, a daily food allowance, and
a supply of firewood, which was the equivalent of an army lieutenant’s
income. In 1821 his house was in a dangerous state of disrepair, and in
recognition of his years of work the engineering service repaired it for
him. Despite his advanced age, Thompson carried out his duties as
overseer of works until 1825. He was then granted a pension equal to his
full salary. In 1828 he asked for and received £188 a year.
Towards the end of his life Thompson became celebrated for his wealth of
memories. Upon arriving at Quebec in 1818, the new governor, the Duke of
Richmond [Lennox*], sent for him to ask about James Wolfe, the siege of
Quebec, and Fraser’s Highlanders. Later Thompson was invited on several
occasions to the home of Governor Lord Dalhousie [Ramsay]. In 1828, as
the last survivor of the battle on the Plains of Abraham and as deputy
grand master of the freemasons, he had the honour of helping lay the
foundation-stone of the monument to Wolfe and Montcalm in the garden of
the Château Saint-Louis. That year he dictated reminiscences and
anecdotes from the two sieges of Quebec and that of Louisbourg to one of
his sons.
James Thompson died in 1830, aged 97. The Quebec Mercury described him
as an intrepid soldier, a faithful servant of the king, the father of a
large and respectable family, and a practising Presbyterian. A Scottish
immigrant who had lived at Quebec for 70 years, he had taken part in the
capture of the town in 1759, its defence in 1775–76, and the
construction of works such as the Hope and Prescott gates and the
citadel. His memoirs and diary bear witness to his time.
Christian Rioux
A Short Authentic Account of the Expidition
against Quebec in the Year 1759
Under command of Major-General James Wolfe by a volunteer upon that
expedition (1872) (pdf)
The
Sword of Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery
A Memoir complied by J. M. LeMoine, Esq. (1870) (pdf) |
