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THE NEW YORK

Genealogical and Biographical Record.
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Vo.. XXVII. NEW YORK JANUARY, 1896. No. I.
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THE FAMILY OF THOMPSON, OF THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, NEW YORK.
{Revised and corrected from former articles in the Record, January, 1891.}
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By Frederick Diodati-Thompson, LL.B.
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Jonathan5, son of Judge Isaac4 Thompson, was born at Sagtikos Manor, Appletree Wicke, December 7, 1773, died at New York, December 30, 1846, and married July 4, 1796, Elizabeth, born on Shelter Island, May 19, 1773, died at Sagtikos, May 31, 1868, daughter of James Havens, Esq., a prominent citizen of Shelter Island. She was a lady of strong and vigorous intellect and many accomplishments. He became a distinguished merchant in New York City, under the firm name of Gardiner & Thompson, being in partnership with Dr. Nathaniel Gardiner. They were in the West India importing business, which they carried on very extensively, but being unfortunate, the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Thompson continued it under his own name. As a politician previous to and during the war of 1812, Mr. Thompson was prominent in the old Democratic Republican party of that period, favoring the war (he held the commission of Captain in 1813. Previously, in 1803, he had been an ensign in an independent company), and officiating for ten successive years as chairman of the Republican General Committee, at that time a very important position. As such he presided at the first public meeting held in Tammany Hall. In consequence of his long services as presiding officer, he received the appellation of the "Everlasting Chairman." "He was the intimate friend of five different Presidents of the United States, and held a high position in the fashionable society of that day."

"November 24, 1813, he was appointed by President James Madison collector of direct taxes and internal duties, under the Act of July 22, 1813, and continued as such until the closure of the office in 1819. December 20, 1820, he was appointed by President Monroe, by and with the consent of the Senate, collector of the customs for the district of New York, to which office he was re-appointed by the same chief magistrate January 13, 1825, and again re-appointed by President John Quincy [page 12] Adams January 27, 1829, and removed by President Andrew Jackson April 25, 1829, in order to award the office to his (the President’s) particular friend Samuel Swarthout, who proved a defaulter to a large amount. During the official connection of Jonathan5 Thompson with the government, his fidelity and accuracy were so remarkable, that, with all the rigid scrutiny exercised by the examiners at Washington, no error was found except one of ten cents discovered during the administration of Mr. Adams. About the time that strenuous efforts were being made to effect his removal from office on political grounds, he having favored the election of William H. Crawford to the Presidency, Mr. Adams had so much confidence in the integrity of Mr. Thompson, as proven by the correctness of his accounts, that he declined removing him, and at an interview in New York personally narrated the whole story. From 1829 he was in no public position, but continued the warehousing business in the valuable ‘Thompson Stores,’ which he owned in Brooklyn; he added to river front, and erected new buildings. In 1840 he was chosen president of the Manhattan Company at the time of its financial embarrassment, and by his prudence and able management it was reinstated among dividend paying institutions. He continued in this office until his death, December 30, 1846, aged seventy-three years and twenty-three days. Mr. Thompson was unostentatious in manners; he courted no popularity, yet carried with him no stinted share of that respect which belongs to genuine worth, and dying left behind him a name which relatives and friends have never heard and never will hear connected with aught but expressions of approbation and esteem. Jonathan5 Thompson was prominent in high life in New York for many years." In this connection the following verses are copied from a poem by Mrs. Saltus, which were written at a summer resort about the different visitors. These lines are I relation to the late David6 Thompson, the eldest son of the above-named Jonathan5, and were written about 1850.

The Thompsons’ descendants of Long Island’s glory,
Whose ancestors’ fame ascends from the sod,
His name is ennobled in Manhattan’s story
By virtue and justice, the good gifts of God.
His mantle of honor on his son has descended,
The richest inheritance mortal can hold;
For vain are escutcheons if truth is not blended
Amid their devices in letters of gold.

Honorable Jonathan5 Thompson and his wife were both interred in the family burying ground on Sagtikos Manor.

Jonathan5 Thompson had six children, who grew up, viz.: David6 who married Sarah Diodati, daughter of John Lyon Gardiner, Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island.

George W. 6, married Eliza Prall.
Jonathan6 married Katharine Todhunter.
Abraham Gardiner6, married Sarah E. Strong.
Mary Gardiner6, married Samuel B. Gardiner, 10th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island;
and Elizabeth6 married Alonzo Brown, but had no issue.
David6 Thompson, born May 3, 1798, died February 22, 1871, married [page 13] Sarah Diodati, {footnote} daughter of John Lyon Gardiner, 7th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island, and sister of Honorable Samuel B. Gardiner who married Mr. Thompson’s sister. Mrs. Thompson’s mother was a Griswold of the distinguished Connecticut family of that name, so many of whom have been governors of the State and distinguished public men. Her uncles John and Charles C. Griswold were prominent shipping merchants in New York, and rivals in importance of their cousins N. L. and George Griswold. John left no children, and Charles C. had but two: Elizabeth, who married Judge Lane (informtion and picture on another site), a very wealthy and distinguished citizen of Sandusky; and Sarah, who married Lorillard Spencer. (Her eldest daughter married Prince Virginio Cenci, Duke of Vicoraro.) Mrs. Thompson’s middle name of Diodati {footnote} was received from her great-grand-[page 14]mother on he[r] mother’s side. This family is now entirely extinct in this country. Mrs. Thompson’s maiden name was Gardiner, {two page footnote} she being of [page 16] the family of that name of Gardiner’s Island. David6 Thompson {footnote} above named was a gentleman well known to all old New Yorkers of the better class standing high as he did in the fashionable world. He received a thorough classical education when young, and at the age of eighteen entered his father’s office; two years afterwards was made cashier of the Custom House. He remained there eight years, and then successfully became the Cashier of the Fulton Bank under John Adams, Cashier and Vice-President of the Bank of America (which was the successor of the old Bank of the United States) under the late George Newbold, and President of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company. This latter institution he took charge of after they had sustained large losses from the dishonesty of a former officer, and by judicious and careful management made the company the foremost of its kind in the city, the shares having increased in value from eighty percent to six hundred. He remained connected with the company until his death, which occurred February 22, 1871, a period of nearly twenty-five years. Mr. Thompson was a gentleman of fine appearance, high-minded, honorable, and a sincere Christian. His funeral took place from his residence, 25 Lafayette Place, on Saturday, February 25th. The clergymen were the Rev. Mancius S. Hutton, D.D.; Rev. Thomas De Witt, D.D.; and the Rev. Samuel R. Ely, D.D. The following-named gentlemen, all of whom were known in financial and social circles, acted as pall-bearers: John David Wolfe, John Q. Jones, Thomas W. Ludlow, Moses Taylor, William B. Astor, Robert Ray, William H. Aspinwall, and Joseph Sampson.

The following notice in regard to this event is copied from the Evening Post: "The funeral of this respected citizen was performed on Saturday, the 25th inst. At 10 o’clock A. M., at his residence, Lafayette Place. [page 17] Notwithstanding the early hour of the day, the spacious mansion was densely crowded with the prominent bankers and distinguished men of the city. Mr. Thompson has been identified with the banking institutions of the city for the last fifty years, and by his blameless life, his mature judgment, his perfect rectitude in all financial transactions, combined with his dignified and courteous manner, won the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. Few men have led a more practical life or left behind a purer record. The Rev. Dr. Hutton, in a brief address, paid an honorable tribute to the memory of the deceased, after which the venerable Dr. De Witt offered most fervent prayer that God would give grace and Divine support to the stricken and sorrowing family; that the multitude of honored and honorable men (man of whom with himself were in the sere of life) who had gathered to the house of mourning might more fully realize the brevity of life and the vanity of earth from this lesson of Divine Providence. The remains were then removed to the hearse and deposited in the family vault." Mr. Thompson’s children were Sarah Gardiner7 {footnote} who married Colonel David Lion Gardiner, born May 23, 1816, died May 9, 1892, B. A. Princeton (son of David Gardiner, who was killed by the explosion of the great gun on board the United States Princeton on the Potomac River when on a pleasure excursion with the President of the United States); Elizabeth7, Gardiner7, {footnote} B.A. Columbia College, 1854, born July 23, 1835, died January 15, 1893; David Gardiner7, {footnote} B.A. Columbia College, 1856, M.A. 1860, born May 29, 1837, died October 16, 1895; Charles Griswold7, formerly Vice-President [page 18] of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Co., and a member of the Century and Metropolitan Clubs; Mary Gardiner7, Frederick Diodati7, {footnote} and a son John Lyon Gardiner7, who died young, and is buried on the Manor of Gardiner’s Island. Sarah Gardiner7 Thompson, who married David Lion Gardiner, has children—David, Sarah Diodati, and Robert Alexander, graduated B.A. Yale, 1887.

George W6. Thompson, born February 25, 1817, died January 8, 1884, son of Jonathan5 Thompson, entered the Custom House under his father and became Deputy Collector. He afterward established himself in business, and acquired by careful attention and strict integrity a fine fortune. He married Eliza Prall, born December 16, 1817, died May 7, 1886. Her father was an eminent merchant and related to some of the best people of the city. They had children: Anna, born December 17, 1846, married William Thorne (son of the late Jonathan Thorne of Thorndale and New York, a wealthy and well-known merchant) and has one child (Lydia A.); William Prall, {footnote} born May 4, 1850, married December 1, 1875, Grace Hollister, only daughter of John Hay Hollister, an eminent citizen of Buffalo, N. Y. (He has children, Edith Crosby, born March 4, 1877, and George W., born April 7, 1878, at present a student at Harvard University.) Thomas De Witt, born February 27, 1853, died January 10, 1893, graduated B.A. 1874, Columbia College and M.A., and a son George W., who died young.

Jonathan6 Thompson, son of Hon. Jonathan5 Thompson, born February 1, 1814, died November 14, 1872, married Katherine Todhunter, died May 9, 1878, of a highly connected family of Baltimore. They had a number of children, but three only lived: Elizabeth T., born December 1845, married June 9, 1884, at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church by the Rev. Dr. John Hall, Elijah Pendleton Smith; Joseph Todhunter, born January 10, 1860, married at St. Mark’s-in-the-Bowery by the Rev. Dr. J. H. Rylance, the rector, April 29, 1884, Jane, daughter of William and Jane Suydam Remsen, and has children (Jonathan, born January 31, 1885, Jane Remsen, born November 11, 1887, Elizabeth Remsen, born February 16, 1894), Mary who married William B. Westcote (Mr. Westcote and his sister, who married Fordham Morris of Morrisania, were the only children of William J. Westcote, Esq.), and has three children (Kitty T., Robert D., and William T.), and Harry who died March 22, 1860.

Jonathan7 Thompson graduated at Columbia College, B. A. 1832, M. A. 1837. He entered the counting-house of S. S. & G. G. Howland, and was there associate with Moses Taylor, Wm. H. Aspinwall, and other young men who afterwards attained eminence in mercantile life. [page 19] Learning the business thoroughly, he began for himself, and during the remainder of his life continued in the West India importing trade.

Junius6 Thompson, born January 31, 1800, graduated B.A. at Columbia College in 1821 and M.A. in 1825, and became a physician by graduating M.D. 1825, for the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He died, unmarried, March 1831.

Abraham Gardiner6 Thompson, born August 10, 1816, in New York City, died at Islip, September 26, 1887, graduated B.A. 1833, and M.A. 1836, at Columbia College, and studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. After taking the degree of M.D. in 1837, he was attached to the New York Hospital for some time, and then went to Paris, where he studied his profession for two years longer and became a surgeon of great skill and a highly educated physician. He also occupied a number of public offices, being twice a member of the Legislature, in 1845 and 1857, Vestryman of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Islip, and was twice president of the Suffolk County Medical Society. April 17, 1851, he married Sarah Elizabeth Strong at Middletown, N. Y., daughter of Ellis and Mary Jackson Strong of Copaig, Huntington South, Long Island, and had Robert Maurice, born August 12, 1853, died September 23, 1873; Milton Strong, born February 8, 1855, graduated Ph.B. Columbia College, 1875, married December 24, 1889, Abigail Adams Johnson, daughter of William Clarkson Johnson and Mary Cornelia, daughter of Major Augustus Nicholson, U. S. Army, a descendant of the Quincy Adams family, [has daughter Sarah Elizabeth, born October 11, 1890, and son Gardiner, born October 29, 1892.] Samuel Ludlow, born January 20, 1860; Elizabeth Havens, born April 19, 1862, died July 17, 1864; Helen, born January 10, 1864, died July 17, 1864; and Grace, born January 8, 1867, died January 23, 1867. Doctor Thompson was a most liberal man, and as an instance of his generosity may be mentioned that he presented to St. Mark’s Church, Islip, the land on which the church, church house, and rectory stand. The money for the church being contributed by Wm. K. Vanderbilt, Esq. Colonel Benajah Strong, great-grandfather of Mrs. Thompson, was a conspicuous officer in the Revolutionary army, whose sister Joanna married General William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Mary Gardiner6 Thompson, born March 23, 1807, died August 5, 1887, married Samuel B. Gardiner, of Gardiner’s Island, a brother of Mrs. Sarah Diodati Thompson. They lived at the ancient Manor only part of the time, as they had several other houses. Their children are Mary Thompson, David J., John Lyon, Jonathan Thompson, and Sarah Griswold. Mary T. married William R. Sands, no issue. (Mr. Sands was son of Richardson Sands, Esq. whose mother was a sister of the celebrated Colonel William Ledyard who was so barbarously slain at the attack on Fort Griswold, at Groton, by the British under command of Benedict Arnold. After the death of her first husband she became the wife of General Ebenezer Stevens, of the Revolutionary Army.) David J. is unmarried. Colonel John Lyon, LL.B. Columbia College, 1863, one of the committee of gentlemen of the Patriarch Balls, New York, married Elizabeth Coralie Livingston, daughter of Oliver H. and Louisa Livingston Jones {footnote} and granddaughter of James Duane Livingstone (they [page 20] have children—Coralie Livingston, married Alexander R. Cox of England; Adele Griswold, Lion, Winthrop, and John.) Jonathan Thompson unmarried, and Sarah Griswold married J. Alexander Tyler (and had children, Gardiner died young, and Lillian Griswold).

Elizabeth6 Thompson, born January 12, 1811, died December 12, 1889, daughter of Jonathan5 Thompson and Elizabeth Havens, married Alonzo Brown, Esq. They had no issue. She was a lady of extraordinary culture, skilled with needle in embroidery and tapestry, and also painted exquisitely in water colors.

Abraham Gardiner5 Thompson, second son of Judge Isaac4 Thompson, of Sagtikos Manor, was born October 27, 1776, and died October 29, 1851. Mr. Thompson was a distinguished merchant in New York, and was also President of the Union Bank on Wall Street. He married Rachael, daughter of Zachariah Rogers, of Huntington, Long Island, by whom he had Charles Rogers, born January 9, 1798, died March 18, 1799; William, born February 4, 1800, died December 15, 1800; Edward Gardiner6, born September 27, 1802, died July 23, 1835. Edward Gardiner6 was the sole survivor of the family. Mrs. Thompson died September 18, 1827. Their son Edward Gardiner, born in 1802, was liberally educated, and graduated at Yale College in 1822. He married Mary, daughter of J. W. Kellogg, of Flatbush, Long Island, and became a merchant in New York. His death occurred in the thirty-third year of his age, July 23, 1835, leaving two sons, Augustus Frederick and Edward Gardiner, and a daughter Cornelia R., married 1st ____ Quimby, Esq., and 2d William H. Pennoyer, Esq. She died January 28, 1884. Augustus Frederick, born Mary 22, 1833, died April 22, 1846. Edward Gardiner7 married Manette Smallwood, a daughter of Joseph L. Smallwood, Esq., and has two daughters, Manetta and Edwina Gardiner. Edwina Gardiner Thompson married, June 21, 1888, at Trinity Chapel, New York, by Rev. Dr. George T. Johnson, Rector of Christ Church, Staten Island, David Ogden Fowler, son of Mortimer Livingston Fowler, a descendant of the Livingston, De Grasse, and Depau families. Edward Gardiner7 Thompson is a lawyer, formerly in partnership with his cousin Judge Blatchford, of the Supreme Court of the United States, was colonel on the staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan, and as such was detailed to welcome and escort the Prince of Wales to New York when he visited this country in 1860.

"After the peace of 1815 the foreign trade of our entire country manifested a tendency to centre in the city of Boston, and the greater part of the capital of the United States engaged in commerce collected in Boston and its vicinity. The general decrease of business in the city of New [page 21] York, caused by the accumulation of this trading capital in Boston, induced the merchants of our city to inquire into the reasons of this state of affairs; and upon making this investigation they arrived at the conclusion that the auction business was highly injurious to the trade of New York, and that if this branch of business was destroyed the trade and commerce of this city would become prosperous; and with that view they petitioned the Legislature to impose a duty of ten per cent on all auction sales, which would, in fact, amount to a prohibition of them. There were some few persons, however, who entertained a different opinion as to the causes of this depression of trade in New York, and among the most prominent was Abraham G.5 Thompson, who had been for years an enterprising and successful merchant in partnership with James Boggs and Joseph Samson. They all acquired very large fortunes. [Mr. Boggs left two daughters, one of whom married Richard Ray, of the firm of Prime, Ward & King, and was the mother of the Vicomtesse de Courval of Paris; the other married Lewis Livingston. Mr. Sampson’s only child by his wife Adele Livingston married (1st) Frederick W. Stevens, and (2d) the Duke de Dino.]

"Mr. Thompson saw that one reason operating in favor of Boston was the India goods could be sold in that city and pay a duty of only one per cent., while, at the same time, if those goods were sold at New York they would be obliged to pay a duty of two and a half per cent., and that to increase the duty upon auction sales was only to increase more widely the difference in favor of Boston and against New York, and the existing duties should be on the contrary diminished in this State. With that view he went to Albany and submitted the result of his experience and judgment to the Legislature, assuring them that by establishing the duty at one per cent. upon East India and one and a half per cent. on European goods, the interests of the city and also the State would be greatly promoted and the revenue increased, by this reduction. It was difficult at first to satisfy those with whom the matter rested that this effect would result from the proposed change; so many hundreds of the merchants and citizens of New York had petitioned for this great increase of duties upon auction sales, that it was almost impossible to think that they could be mistaken in their view of the subject. Eventually, however, Governor Daniel D. Tompkins did become satisfied that the project of Mr. Thompson was the correct one, and gave his influence to secure the enactment of the law reducing the rates of duties as proposed, in place of increasing them. Previous to the passage of the law reducing the rate of duties, for the two best years between 1783 and 1812 this State had received from duties upon auction sales of India goods between five and six thousand dollars, averaging from twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars per annum; and to show his confidence in the opinions he had expressed, Mr. Thompson offered the governor, that, upon the passage of the law reducing the rate of duties, if the State would convey to him the duties alone upon India goods he would pay into the State treasury, in advance, for the first year the sum of six thousand dollars, being more than the State had received for duties for any two years subsequent to 1783. The result following that reduction of duties more than justified all his anticipations and more than fulfilled all his predictions; for soon after the passage of that law, in place of selling all East India cargoes in Boston, as had previously been the case, a Boston ship from the East [page 22] Indies was sent to New York, and the auction duties upon her cargo alone amounted to upward of six thousand dollars, and the revenue received by the State upon India goods for the first year after the reduction of duties amounted to between thirty-two and thirty-three thousand dollars. All the India ships, after the enactment of the law, were sent to New York, and from that time but few attempts have been made to sell India goods east of New York. The reduced duties being continued, the revenue arising to the State soon reached the sum of three hundred thousand dollars. The effect of this reduction of the duties upon auction sales has been not only to multiply the business of this city to the shipper, the importer, the jobber, and the mechanic; it has not only by this increase of business made New York the commercial emporium of the nation, and thus has drawn merchants and purchasers from all parts of our widely extended country, and tended directly to enhance the value of real estate, and filled our city with palaces, and made our merchants princes; it has not only materially aided the State in the payment of her debt incurred from the system of internal improvements—but it also afforded an impetus to the prosecution of the project for the great Erie Canal, without which it would probably have been delayed for very many years. The successful result of the reduction of the auction duties placed into the State Treasury such an increased amount of duties, compared with the previous receipts from the same source, that the State embarked upon the prosecution of this canal, which has poured and continues to pour untold wealth into the city and State of New York."

Abraham Gardiner5 Thompson {footnote} died October 29, 1851, and left a large fortune. His bequests to religious and charitable societies amounted to $347,000, of which the Bible Society was to receive $65,000, the Tract Society $54,000, the Seaman’s Friend Society $54,000, the Colonization Society $43,000, the Home Missionary Society $43,000, the American Board of Missions, $32,000, the Education Society $32,000, the Deaf and Dumb Society $10,800, and the Blind Asylum $10,800. There was a contest over his will and these societies did not realize their legacies.

Mary Gardiner, the first wife of Judge Isaac4 Thompson, of Sagtikos Manor, born October, 1748; died April 21, 1786. On February 7, 1791, he married Sarah, daughter of Gilbert Bradner, deceased, of Orange County, and granddaughter of Rev. John Bradner (a native of Scotland, whose wife was the daughter of Count de Colville), first pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that place in 1721. By this second wife Judge Thompson had two children, daughters, Mary and Julia. The first was born April 19, 1792, and married William Howard, of Newtown, May 5, 1812. She died December 23, 1813,leaving a daughter Sarah, born May 2, 1813, who married Dr. M. H. Staples. Julia, the second daughter above named, was born December 12, 1793, and married S. S. Carle, of Huntington, January 11, 1820, by whom she had issue, Mary Anne, Julia Elizabeth, and Timothy S.

Dr. Samuel4 Thompson, oldest son of Jonathan3, and great-grandson of John the first settler, was born October 2, 1738, and possessed the paternal estate at Asford, or, as it is now called, Setauket, on which he spent his life. He carried on farming operations to a great extent and became a very wealthy man. He adapted some improvements in agriculture, [page 23] particularly the use of "Indian shells" as a manure, which was afterwards successfully imitated by others. At the age of thirty he commenced the study of medicine, and enjoyed in a few years a very extensive and lucrative practice, which he maintained until within a short time of his death, September 17, 1811. He was a gentleman of strong and clear mind, high character, and by a long course of reading and reflection acquired an extensive fund of useful knowledge. His first wife was Phoebe, daughter of Jacob and Mary Satterly, born August 25, 1759, died July 7, 1793, whom he married July 7, 1781, and had children Benjamin F. 5 and Hannah who died young. Benjamin F. 5 {footnote} was born May 15, 1784, [page 24] and was educated at Yale College, but did not graduate. He studied medicine under Dr. Sage of Sag Harbor, and practiced for about ten years, when he relinquished this profession and read law, and was called [page 25] to the bar. He followed the legal profession for the remainder of his life, but was better known by his literary labors. His "History of Long Island" has preserved his name to posterity in the most imperishable manner. He married, June 12, 1810, Mary Howard, born October 5, 1794, eldest daughter of the Rev. Zachariah Greene. {footnote} He had four [page 26] children: Henry Rutgers, born March 17, 1813, and having been for several years an officer of one of the New York banks, died in the thirtieth year of his age, unmarried, highly beloved and respected, October 15, 1842; Mary Greene, born June 20, 1815, died unmarried; Harriet Satterly, {footnote} born November 9, 1818, married June 12, 1837, died –; Jacob T. Vanderhoof, Esq., died –; and Edward Z., {footnote} born September 2, 1821, married Elizabeth Lush, July 10, 1843, of Hempstead, L. I., died –. Male line extinct.

Dr. Samuel4 Thompson contracted a second marriage on March 10, 1795, with Ruth, daughter of Timothy and Sebiah Smith, by whom he had a daughter, Mary Woodhull, born January 11, 1796, and a son, Colonel Samuel Ludlow, born March 5, 1799, the only children who live to maturity. The former died unmarried, December 28, 1834, and the latter married, February 12, 1842, his cousin Sophia, daughter of Colonel Isaac Satterly. Ruth, Widow of Dr. Samuel4 Thompson, died January 26, 1834. Colonel Samuel Ludlow5 Thompson and his wife both died in the year 1865, and were interred in the old burying-ground of the homestead at Setauket. Male line is now extinct.

Colonel Samuel Ludlow5 Thompson had one daughter, Mary Ludlow, born January 14, 1844. She married, first, William Leroy Berrian, and had one daughter, Mary Berrian, and second, on January 14, 1868, Thomas Strong Griffing, a gentleman farmer on the old estate at Setauket. (This estate, during the lifetime of Colonel Thompson, was considered a model farm and his exhibits at the International Exhibition, 1851, in London, took first prizes.) He was a lieutenant in the Mexican war in Colonel Robert E. Temple’s regiment, and was assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, under General McClellan in the late civil war. They had two sons, Thomas Strong Griffing, born December 30, 1868, and James Rogers Griffing, who died aged four months, 1877. Captain Griffing was a nephew of the late Judge Strong, of St. George’s Manor, and was therefore a relative of his wife. Captain Griffing and his wife were both buried in the Strong vault on Strong’s Neck, St. George’s Manor. The old Thompson homestead has recently been sold out of the family. 


On page 57 is an obituary for THOMPSON: "David Gardiner Thompson, born May 29, 1837, died October 16, 1895, at his apartments adjoining the Westminster Hotel in this city [New York].

Mr. Thompson was a descendant of the family of that name of Sagtikos Manor, Long Island, and on his maternal line direct from the Gardiners of the Manor of Gardiner's Island. He was devoted to literary pursuits, and graduated B.A. from Columbia College, 1856, and M.A. 1860. Mr. Thompson was much interested in the Fraternity of Delta Psi, the N. Y. Historical Society, the American Geographical Society, and the St. Nicholas Society, of all of which he was a member.

His funeral obsequies took place from the residence of his sisters, 17 W. 36th St., in this city, Friday morning, October 18, at 10 o'clock, the interment being in the family vault in Greenwood Cemetery. The Rev. Edward B. Coe, D.D., officiated."


Setauket Presbyterian Church, The Village Green, 5 Caroline Avenue, Setauket, Long Island, New York
Samuel Thompson Born March 4, 1668 Died July 14, 1749 Son of Mr. John Thompson who came with Richard Floyd and Col. Richard Woodhull with 55 others, who were the founders of this place in the year l655/6. Click image to enlarge. Larger scan of Samuel's stone.

Here lieth the body of Hannah Brewster Wife of Mr. Samuel Thompson And Daughter of Sarah Ludlow and Rev. Nathaniel Brewster first minister of this place. Born May 19, 1679 Died Nov. 17, 1755. Click image to enlarge. Larger scan of Hannah's stone

To Deed between Dr. Samuel Thompson and William Jayne, May 22, 1801
THE NEW YORK Genealogical and Biographical Record. Volume XXVII: http://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealogi1896gree

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