Life

He was a younger son of John Thom (died 1808), born on 10 January 1808 at Newry

Newry

Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...

, County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, where his father, a native of Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...

, was presbyterian minister from 1800. His mother was Martha Anne (1779–1859), daughter of Isaac Glenny. In 1823 he was admitted at the Belfast Academical Institution as a student under the care of the Armagh presbytery. He became assistant to Thomas Dix Hincks

Thomas Dix Hincks

Thomas Dix Hincks was an Irish orientalist and naturalist.Hincks was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was ordained a Presbysterian minister and worked at the Old Presbyterian Church on Princes Street in Cork. After teaching in the Cork Institution, which he founded, he taught in Fermoy,...

 as a teacher of classics and Hebrew, while studying theology under Samuel Hanna.

The writings of William Ellery Channing

William Ellery Channing

Dr. William Ellery Channing was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton, one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. He was known for his articulate and impassioned sermons and public speeches, and as a prominent thinker...

 made him a unitarian; he did not join the Irish remonstrants under Henry Montgomery, but preached his first sermon in July 1829 at Renshaw Street Chapel, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, and shortly afterwards was chosen minister of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. On 10 May 1831 he was nominated as successor to John Hincks as minister of Renshaw Street Chapel, and entered on the pastoral office there on 7 August, having meanwhile preached (17 July) the funeral sermon of William Roscoe

William Roscoe

William Roscoe , was an English historian and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born in Liverpool, where his father, a market gardener, kept a public house called the Bowling Green at Mount Pleasant. Roscoe left school at the age of twelve, having learned all that his schoolmaster could teach...

, the historian; this was his first publication.

The arrival (1832) of James Martineau

James Martineau

James Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...

 in Liverpool gave him a close associate; in 1833 his interest in practical philanthropy was stimulated by the visit of Joseph Tuckerman from Boston, Massachusetts. A personal connection with Joseph Blanco White

Joseph Blanco White

Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco Crespo , was a Spanish theologian and poet....

 began in January 1835. At Christmas of that year he was a main founder of the Liverpool Domestic Mission. In July 1838 he succeeded John Relly Beard

John Relly Beard

John Relly Beard was an English Unitarian minister who wrote more than thirty books in his lifetime.-Life:He was born in Portsmouth on 4 August 1800, the first child of a tradesman, John Beard, and his wife Ann Paine. Afer schooling in Portsmouth and in France he went joined Manchester College,...

 as editor of the Christian Teacher, a monthly which developed (1845) into the Prospective Review (see John James Tayler). From February to May 1839 he contributed four lectures, and a defensive ‘letter,’ to the Liverpool Unitarian controversy, conducted in conjunction with Martineau and Henry Giles

Henry Giles

Henry Giles was a Unitarian minister and writer.-Biography:Born in County Wexford to a Roman Catholic family, Giles changed his religious belief several times, becoming a Protestant and a Dissenter, He studied for a time at the Royal Academical Institution of Belfast...

, in response to the challenge of thirteen Anglican clergy. Thom's chief antagonist was Thomas Byrth.

On 25 June 1854 he resigned his charge, and went abroad for travel and study, his place at Renshaw Street being taken by William Henry Channing (1810–1884), nephew of the Boston divine. He returned to Renshaw Street in November 1857, and ministered there till his final retirement on 31 December 1866. From 1866 to 1880 he acted as visitor to Manchester New College, London. His last public appearance was at the opening (16 November 1892) of new buildings for the Liverpool Domestic Mission. Latterly his eyesight failed, and for a short time before his death he was quite blind. He died at his residence, Oakfield, Greenbank, Liverpool, on 2 September 1894, and was buried on 7 September in the graveyard of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth Park. He married (2 January 1838) Hannah Mary (1816–1872), second daughter of William Rathbone V

William Rathbone V

-Life:A member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool, he was the eldest son of William Rathbone IV and Hannah Mary . He was a Liverpool merchant in partnership with Richard Rathbone, his brother....

.

Works

His ‘Life of Blanco White,’ 1845, was his best known work. Others were:

• ‘Memoir’ prefixed to ‘Sermons’ by John Hincks, 1832.
• ‘St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians,’ 1851 (expository sermons).
• ‘Letters, embracing his Life, by John James Tayler,’ 1872, 2 vols; 2nd ed. 1873.
• ‘Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ,’ 1883, 8vo (sermons); 2nd ser. 1886.

Posthumous were:

• ‘A Spiritual Faith,’ 1895 (sermons; with portrait and memorial preface by Martineau).
• ‘Special Services and Prayers,’ 1895 (unpublished).

His ‘Hymns, Chants, and Anthems,’ 1854, was a Unitarian hymn-book.

External links

• University of Liverpool page

Attribution