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JOHN RICHARD THOMPSON, father of Maud Louisa and Leah Thompson Coleman
John Richard Thompson was said to have been born Feb. 29, 1851, (although it was not a leap year that year) in the tiny village of Saham Toney, in Norfolk, England, to William and Elizabeth Thompson. He was the fourth child.
The 1851 census records lists the oldest as Susan, but she is also known as Elizabeth. His sister Louise is listed as Maria, and William T. as Thomas. John is called Richard. This was very confusing until we learned that back in those days the Church of England resented listing anyone who had dissented from their ranks. Whether the Thompsons had defected to the Methodist Church, which had been built on their employer's estate, or to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is unsure. But it does appear the Church of England simply listed them by the children's middle names. Perhaps they were then called by their middle names.
Knowing there were at least 2 siblings that we were sure of, Alfred and Joseph, who kept in touch through letters. (Alfred changed his name to Tompson) The passenger list named later confirmed this was our family. We can pinpoint at what point they may have joined, as the children began to be named Joseph Moroni, Willard Hyrum, etc. about 1853.
At the early age of 10, John Richard went put to work for someone he termed "a wealthy farmer," where he developed a great appreciation and love of plant life. This was probably the gardener of the estate on which he lived. His parents may have met while working there. His father was in charge of the horses there, his mother was possibly a house servant, and it is probable John worked for the gardener.
The owner of the estate was Mr. Edward Smith of Saham Grove. He was a very highly respected man by his employees and friends.
According to a friend in England who has helped in the search for Thompsons, Mr. Steve Vargerson, "I know from personal experience that our families in Saham Toney never moved very far either to marry or to die, the village was self contained with just about every tradesman you would need for life 150 years ago, I must have been a great adventure to Leave England to travel to America all those years ago.
It seems very trivial these days but to our ancestors in those days the Church was a very powerful institution, and to believe in any other form of worship would only bring the family trouble with the local clergy. The Church retaliated in the only way they could, they told their congregation to shun these dessenters and to alienate them as much as possible. This must have been awful, man against man with people you had spent a lifetime with, its little wonder that families left to find a new life.
Standing outside those cottages in the cold damp air, one's heart goes out to those people that lived those many years ago, they lived over a mile and a half from the village, had non of the comforts of modern living and knew little of the outside world from one year to the next, but I am assured that Mr Edward Smith looked after his employees with the kindness and respect they deserved, this is of some comfort to know when life in rural Norfolk was very very hard."
Coming to America
Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to England and taught the Thompson family the restored gospel. Perhaps the message was delivered in the "purposebuilt chapel" that Mr. Edward Smith had built behind his employees cottages. It was here the employees may have listened to the minister's "new gospel."
When the call to gather to Zion came, his family decided to immigrate to America. In 1868, they traveled to Utah to join the Latter Day Saints. John was 17 at the time. They traveled to Liverpool for the trip. As Mr. Vargerson states: "Liverpool is over 200 miles away from Saham, it must have been a horrendous journey in 1868."
The trip began in Scotland, where 8 saints boarded, then went down to Liverpool, where the majority embarked.
According to the record:
July 28th. The fine steamship Colorado sailed from Liverpool, England, with 365 Saints, in charge of John E. Pace. The company arrived at New York about Aug. 10th, and at Ogden Aug. 20th.
From the history of one who sailed on the Colorado:
On Wednesday morning, July 28th, 1869, after bidding farewell to their families, friends and native land, Janett Gallacher and eight other Scottish Saints boarded a boat at Glasgow and under the direction of John E. Pace sailed down the River Clyde. Reaching Liverpool that same afternoon, they embarked on the fine steamship Colorado for America. The voyage was wonderful, no storms being encountered during the entire trip.
Upon arrival at New York in the afternoon of August 10th, they prepared to stay in Castle Garden all night, as their train did not leave until the next afternoon. The Saints were all very hungry, having had nothing to eat since their dinner the day before, and none of them had any money. None, that is, but Janett Gallacher. She thought of the two fifty-cent pieces tucked in her bosom, which had been given to her by two little girls at the time of her departure from Scotland. When she looked again at the hungry Saints, she crossed the street and bought one dollar's worth of cheese and crackers, which supplied them with food until their train arrived.
The little group reached Ogden August 20, 1869, on one of the first trains to cross the nation on the new transcontinental railway.
The passenger list named the following Thompsons on the voyage: William 40, Elizabeth, 41, William, 18, John, 16, Joseph, 14, Will, 7, Alf, 6, Walter, 5, and Orson, 3. Apparently his sisters, Elizabeth Susan and Louise Maria did not survive their childhood, as family records claim they died as children, and they are not on the passenger list. Also conspicuously absent is Arthur Robert Thompson, supposedly a son born between Alfred Brigham, age 6 and Walter, age 5. But his birth date of 29 Oct. 1859, makes that impossible, as does his absence on the passenger list. Nevertheless, he may have been a relative, as he was born in the nearby town of Burnham Westgate.
Autobiographical Sketch
His daughter, Leah, saved this short biographical sketch published about her father, which he had printed, possibly, as an advertisement for his "school."
"I was born Feb. 29, 1851, in Norfolk, England. My full name is John Richard Thompson. At ten years of age I was employed in a wealthy farmer's garden, a beautiful place of fruit trees, vegetables, berries, herbs, nuts, shrubs, laurels, lawns, wide paths with box edging and a greenhouse. On the north side of the garden was a high brick wall and fruit trees trained over its surface. Among the flowers the musk, primrose and wallflower.
"In 1868 my family emigrated to America and after twenty years in the dental office I longed for the fresh open earth and sky; to be with nature and nature's God-- a garden where I could see the dogwood, the trumpet vine and hear the whippoorwill and children's voices.
I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills,
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.
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