Thompson’s of Kirkbymoorside

Bethe Thompson (1800-1872) Elizabeth Sigsworth (1803-1807) of Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire

The Thompson family were farming Kirkbymoorside, aka Kirkby Moorside, for generations before our 3rd Great Grandparents, Bethel THOMPSON (1800-1872) married Elizabeth SIGSWORTH (1803-1867) in Kirkbymoorside, 1828. The adorable couple are portrayed in their later years in the above photographs from the 1860s. As freehold farmers the couple employed two men to work their 55 acres as agricultural labourers, in addition to their own sons and daughters.

Complimenting their farming, the couple were also butchers, cattle dealers, and publicans. The Thompson’s were publicans at the Tontine Inn, 10 Market Place, Kirbymoorside, for at least twenty years from approximately 1851 until Bethel’s death in 1872. The Ham & Pork Factor (aka butchers) appears to have been run out of the same property, from the shop front on the left hand side of the photograph.

Bethel THOMPSON was laid to rest alongside his wife Elizabeth and daughter Hannah in All Saints Churchyard, Kirkbymoorside. The plot is alongside Elizabeth’s parents, our 4th Great Grandparents, James SIGSWORTH (1772-1851) and Hannah WAIND (1782-1855) from Ankness in Bransdale, just north of Kirkbymoorside.

Of fourteen children from the couple’s marriage, we are descended from the 10th child, Robert THOMPSON (1839-1896). Robert was raised in Kirbymoorside by his parents and grandparents until his marriage, age 34, to Elizabeth SMITH (1849-1907), ten years his junior. Elizabeth was the daughter of a Tea Dealer, originally from Aberdeenshire, and the daughter of a Driffield furniture maker.

Our 2nd Great Grandparents initially moved to Stockton on the Forest, farming 110 acres, then onto the Bog Hall Estate of Appleton Le Street. Our family line is descended from their youngest of eight children, William THOMPSON (1891-1964). He was only 5 years old when his father died tragically young. Unable to support the whole family as a widowed single mother, Elizabeth enrolled William in the Bluecoats School in York, where an orphan could receive free tuition, boarding, and learn a vocation.

William THOMPSON, our Great Grandfather, excelled at school and apprenticed as a Grocer with the Co-operative Society in York. He was promoted to manager before before acquiring his own grocery business in Goodramgate, York. William married Clara Eva BAKER in 1918 and they raised two children Winifred May THOMPSON (1920-1977) and David William Thompson (1930-2015).

As William’s position in society was elevated he became a city councillor, sheriff, and ultimately Lord Mayor of York during WWII. The grocery business thrived, evolved into animal feeds manufacturing, and delivered goods to farms surrounding York. Three generations of the Thompson family would manage the business into the 21st century.

Family Tree

The siblings of our Great Grandfather, William Thompson, continued to farm in Yorkshire or emigrated to California, Canada, & Chile!

Bethel THOMPSON (1800-1872) & Elizabeth SIGSWORTH (1803-1867)
- Robert THOMPSON (1839-1896) & Elizabeth SMITH (1849-1907)
  - Mary Ellen Thompson (1876-1952)
  - George R Thompson (1877-1958) & Jane A Richardson (1874-1950)
    - Herbert R Thompson (1901-1921)
    - Gladys M Thompson (1904-1972)
    - Kathleen E Thompson (1905-1988)
    - Robert Thompson (1907-?)
    - Annie I Thompson (1910-?)
    - Nellie Thompson (1912-1974)
  - Hannah Thompson (1879-1960) & Richard W Gamble (1870-1942)
    - Nellie Thompson (1900-1968)
    - Mary Gamble (1904-1988)
    - Lucy Gamble (1905-?)
    - Hilda Gamble (1907-1988)
    - Annie Gamble (1907-1988)
    - Kathleen Gamble (1911-1981)
    - Elizabeth Gamble (1913-?)
    - Margaret Gamble (1916-1984)
    - Eva Gamble (1917-1999)
    - Dorothy Gamble (1922-1923)
  - James Thompson (1881-?) & Emmie Simnett (1885-1989)
    - Emmie Thompson (1911-1988)
    - William J Thompson (1912-1995)
    - Grace E Thompson (1914-2004)
  - Ann E Thompson (1883-1949) & James R Richardson (1883-1958)
    - Kathleen Richardson (1907-1997)
    - Hazel C Richardson (1922-1997)
  - Harold Thompson (1886-1960) & Myra Edith Thompson (1887-1979)
    - Earl D Thompson (1914-1972)
    - Margaret E Thompson (1915-2001)
    - Mary E Thompson (1919-1998)
    - Harold Robert Thompson (1921-1943)
  - Herbert Thompson (1887-1960) & Gertrude Scott (1887-1967)
    - Herbert Thompson (1911-1981)
    - Harold Thompson (1913-1995)
    - Robert Thompson (1918-1942)
    - Gertrude Thompson (1920-2002)
  - William THOMPSON (1891-1964) & Clara Eva BAKER (1893-1962)
    - Winifred May THOMPSON (1920-1977) & Charles Reginald BAINBRIDGE (1915-1994)
      - Our direct line…
    - David William Thompson (1930-2015) & Anne J M Golledge (1939-1992)

Thompson Family Stories

Thompson’s of Kirkbymoorside
The Thompson family were farming Kirkbymoorside, aka Kirkby Moorside, for generations before our 3rd Great Grandparents, Bethel THOMPSON (1800-1872) married Elizabeth SIGSWORTH (1803-1867) in Kirkbymoorside, 1828. The adorable couple are portrayed in their later years in the above photographs from the 1860s. As freehold farmers the couple employed two men to work their 55 acres…
William Thompson & The Mounted Home Guard
Our Great Grandfather, William THOMPSON (1891-1964), led the charge! “England’s only mounted section of the Home Guard, which nightly patrols 100 square miles of the North Riding,” read the caption in the Yorkshire Evening Press. Well, that might have been a slight exaggeration, as there were at least three other mounted units in Devon, Glamorgan,…
H Robert Thompson & Vickers Wellington
Sergeant H Robert Thompson, Royal Canadian Air Force, was serving with 14 OTU at RAF Market Harborough, training as a navigator on Vickers Wellington medium bombers, having left his new wife, May, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to enlistment, Robert worked on his father’s farm and completed two years studying medicine at Victoria College. He…
Robert Thompson & SS Empire Spring
Leading Signalman Robert Thompson, aged 24, served as one of six Royal Navy staff aboard the CAM Ship, SS Empire Spring. Robert had completed naval training in London, met his wife on weekend leave in Southend on Sea, married in her hometown of Sunderland, and started a family. They were going to settle down in…
Jim Thompson’s South American Adventure
James “Jim” Thompson (1881-?), our Great Granduncle, took a leap of faith in September 1907. Married in York just four months earlier, Jim departed Liverpool bound for the southern tip of the South American continent, Patagonia. The isolated and remote location had developed a large and highly profitable sheep industry which recruited shepherds from British…
Our families and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake!
At precisely 5:12am Wednesday, 18th April 1906, Northern California was struck by an estimated 7.9 magnitude earthquake, shaking the city of San Francisco for 42 seconds. 80% of the city was affected by the quake, however the subsequent four days and nights of fires caused the total destruction of historic downtown San Francisco and the…