THOMPSON, Edward (1696-1742), of Marston, Yorks.

Edward Thompson was the grandson of Sir Henry Thompson, M.P. York 1673-81 and lord mayor of the city 1663 and 1672, whose brother Edward was also lord mayor of York 1683 and sat for it 1688-98 and 1700. Returned himself for York after a contest in 1722, he seconded a motion that a committee of the House of Commons should examine Christopher Layer in the Tower, 15 Jan. 1723; spoke against the special tax on the property of Papists, 6 May 1723; moved the Address in terms of ‘most elaborate flattery’, 12 Nov. 1724; and was one of the managers of Lord Chancellor Macclesfield’s impeachment 1725.1Knatchbull Diary. In that year he was appointed a commissioner of Irish revenue, thereafter speaking frequently for the Government, specializing on Irish affairs.2HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 26, 69, 164. In 1734 he managed the Yorkshire petition, spending £60 a day on bringing witnesses to London and maintaining them there.3HMC Carlisle, 164; W. W. Bean, Parl. Rep. of Six Northern Counties, 1113. About this time he separated from his wife on account of her intrigue with his intimate friend, Sir George Oxenden. He was opposed at York in 1741, but headed the poll, as he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, ‘against the power of the magistracy, the partiality of the returning officers, the fury of the mob, the papist influence, and the rage of faction’.4Add. 32697, f.24. He died, ruined by his election expenditure,5J. Ibbetson to Newcastle, 1 July 1747, Add. 32712, f.7; Sir Thos. Robinson to Pelham, 19 Nov. 1746, Newcastle (Clumber) mss. 5 July 1742.