THOMPSON, John, ?of Great Hadham, Herts.

For a man of considerable importance within the Cromwellian administration in Scotland, the background of John Thompson is surprisingly obscure.11NLS, MS 14406, f. 14. The records of the inns of court and the universities include possible John Thompsons from Essex, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire, Buckinghamshire and Devon.12Al. Ox.; Al. Cant.; G. Inn Admiss. Two John Thompsons of approximately the right age can be found in the visitation records for Yorkshire.13Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. iii. 411; Yorks. Peds. ed. Walker, iii. 363. Our John Thompson might also be the man of the same name who was clerk of the petty bag in the English court of chancery during the 1640s and 1650s, but as this functionary apparently remained in post in London until 1659, this is unlikely.14CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 162; 1658-9, p. 263; CCAM 287. The best candidate seems to be the John Thompson of Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, who invested a modest amount in the Irish adventurers’ scheme in 1642, and who went on to buy out other stakes, amassing a claim of £1,150 in 1654, at just the time that the MP was earning a comfortable salary and was certainly capable of speculating in the Irish land market. He might therefore have been related to two MPs, George Thomson* and William Thomson*, who came from Hertfordshire and had also invested in the adventure in 1642. Such an identification must remain highly speculative, however: he was not their brother, and no John Thompson appears in the Hertfordshire visitation return for the family in 1634.15CSP Ire. Adv. pp. 34-5, 70, 348; Bottigheimer, Eng. Money and Irish Land, 192, 211; Vis. Herts 1572, 1634 (Harl. Soc. xxii), 97-8.

Thompson’s career comes into focus only in the early 1650s, when he was working for the Committee for Compounding. In April 1650 he liaised with Richard Hill* and Thomas Barnardiston on the allocation of arrears of a pension due to Katherine Boyle, Lady Ranelagh (wife of Arthur Jones*), although his exact office is unknown.16Add. 5501, ff. 46-7. In 1652, presumably on the strength of his previous administrative experience, he was appointed auditor-general of the revenues in Scotland, with a salary of £500, and also auditor of the provisions, with a further £100 per annum.17Acts Parl. Scot. vi. pt. 2, p. 899; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIV, p. 2. His remit thus included overseeing the accounts of the receiver-general of the assessments, the deputy treasurers-at-war, the commissaries for provisions and arms, and other military officials who received public money.18Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 22 Mar. 1656. Although principally holding a military position, Thompson was also involved in civilian affairs. In December 1652 he attended the Scottish committee in London to give an account of sequestered estates; in July 1653 he was among those officials appointed to treat with local gentlemen about assessment rates in individual shires; and in the next month he was collecting the confiscated crown revenues, working with local commanders to enforce payment.19CSP Dom. 1652-3, p. 49; Scot. and Commonwealth ed. Firth, 160, 173, 181. Thompson’s relations with the commanders-in-chief in Scotland were correspondingly close. In 1653 Robert Lilburne* called on Thompson to examine claims for compensation by Captain Benjamin Bressie*, and to arbitrate a dispute between the army and the commissary for provisions, Nathaniel Eldred.20Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 13 Aug., 25 Oct. 1653. Liburne also relied on Thompson to give ‘particular satisfaction’ to the Army Committee in Whitehall for the shortfall of the assessments during the earl of Glencairn’s rebellion.21Scot. Commonwealth ed. Firth, 288. Thompson was also promoted by George Monck*, who may have backed his appointment as commissioner for claims under the ordinance for pardon and grace of April 1654.22A. and O. Monck may also have sponsored Thompson’s return for the shires and Selkirk and Peebles, in an election held on 22 August 1654.23C219/44, unfol. Thompson may not have attended Parliament for more than a few weeks, as there is no record of his presence in the Commons after 3 November 1654.24CJ vii. 381a. In the early days of the Parliament he was named to only three committees, including the committee for Scottish affairs (29 Sept.) and that for regulating and limiting the jurisdiction of the court of chancery (5 Oct.).25CJ vii. 371b, 374a.

When Monck was faced with an embarrassing corruption case surrounding the activities of the receiver-general for assessments, George Bilton, he turned to Thompson for assistance. On 4 October 1655 the newly-arrived president of the Scottish council, Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) told the protectoral council at Whitehall that Thompson’s full investigation was underway, but ‘these accounts are so long and intricate’ that it would take two months to complete.26NLS, MS 14406, f. 14. In fact, Thompson was only able to present a full account of Bilton’s activities to the Scottish council in March 1658.27Add. 4158, ff. 108-15. Meanwhile, in March 1656 he was instructed to undertake a complete audit of the financial system, and was given freedom to travel between Leith and London in order to complete it.28Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVII, unfol.: 22, 28 Mar. 1656. The result was a tightening of controls on officials, and a retrenchment of government expenditure. Although Thompson’s own position was secure, when economies were made to the civil list in 1656 his salary as auditor-general was reduced to £400.29Acts Parl. Scot. vi. part 2, pp. 896, 899. This was not a sign of official disfavour: in April 1656 Thompson was confirmed as commissioner for claims under the act of pardon, in 1658 he was made judge of the exchequer court, and he was once again sent to London on official business in November of the same year.30CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 279; Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 387; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIX, f. 15. In the elections for the third protectorate Parliament in January 1659, the corporation of the city of Edinburgh ‘unanimously elected’ Thompson as MP, alongside a Scottish councillor, Nathaniel Whetham I.31Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 129. The city council expected their MPs to act as their agents at Westminster, and on 7 February arranged for instructions to be sent to them.32Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/20, f. 18. In the Commons, Thompson’s activity was again slight, but there are signs that he was acting on his constituents’ behalf when, on 13 April, he was appointed (with Whetham) to the committee to examine the petition of the son of Sir William Dick, the Edinburgh financier made bankrupt through securing government loans in the 1640s.33CJ vii. 637b.

After the fall of the protectorate, Thompson continued as auditor-general and judge of the exchequer. His continuing influence concerned Sir Archibald Johnston* of Wariston, who feared for his lucrative office as clerk register. In May 1659 Wariston heard news ‘which troubled me, the Colonel Whetham and Auditor-General Thomson had been all day consulting with [Robert] Pittiloch and Mr Patrick Oliphant anent the secretary’s place and mine, that they might be farmed for £5,000’.34Wariston Diary, iii. 109-110. Thompson remained in favour with Monck, and was again nominated as judge of the exchequer in March 1660, although the post was scrapped at the Restoration, less than two months later.35Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 261. The return of the king did not bring Thompson’s administrative career to an immediate end, however. On 18 August 1660 the officers entrusted with the government in Monck’s absence wrote to the general with final arrangements for handing over power to the royal authorities, adding that certain officials, including Thompson, should be continued in office to settle accounts and outstanding arrears.36NLS, Acc. 10583, pt. 2, f. 33. It is not known whether this advice was acted upon, and from the summer of 1660 Thompson’s career again becomes indistinguishable from those of his numerous namesakes.