Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Major Robert Thompson, (b. 1622) died 1694
“In 1641 (John) Humphrey was apppointed governor of Providence Island, but his plans to emigrate were disrupted when the colony fell to the Spanish. The admiral of the fleet was Hugh Peter’s brother Benjamin. The vice admiral was the commissioner Thomas Rainsborough, the later Leveller; Rainsborough’s brother William, also involved in the voyage, had lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, before the Civil War. The rear admiral was Maurice Thomson’s brother Robert, a resident of Boston, Massachusetts during the 1630s.” (Brenner)
Thompson, CT was named for Maj. Robert Thomson. However, a copy of Maj. Robert’s will reveals that he never spelled his name with a ‘p’.
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Edward Hopkins, Gov. of CT, named his sister, Margaret Thomson, and her children, Henry and Katherine James (nee Thomson), in his will. Google has digitized a book called ‘The Early Massachusetts Press, 1638-1711’ that suggests Margaret (Hopkins) Thomson was the wife of Maj. Robert.
In 1690, the will of Col. George Thomson (Maj. Robert’s brother) named “my nephew Joseph Thomson, son of brother Robert Thomson, Esq.” It may be that the Henry Thomson had died prior to his father and uncle.
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Per L&M Companion:
Navy Commissioner from 1649 throughout the Interregnum, serving in 1657-60 as victualing commissioner at Plymouth. The second of four Thompson brothers. “Presbyterian merchants prominent in the service of the Commonwealth.”
Col. George Thompson http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/618.php
Sir William Thompson http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/10413.php
Maurice Thompson, does not appear in the diary