president's addhess. 257 



should not be passed by in an enumeration of those whose loss 

 we have to deplore — Mr. Hutton, Mr. Fryer, and Mr. Sidney. 



I have already mentioned the name of Archdeacon Coxe as 

 that of one who has been called from among us during the past 

 year. There is another member, whom we have just lost. I 

 refer to Mr. John Thompson, who died at Gateshead on the 26th 

 of March, at the good old age of eighty-eight. Mr. Thompson 

 was in many respects a remarkable man, and a most worthy 

 member of our Club. I am indebted to a friend, who has been 

 acquainted with him during a lengthened period, for most of the 

 particulars, which enable me to supply the following notes on 

 his life. Thirty years ago John Thompson was a miller at Crow- 

 hall Mill, on the Tyne, near Haydon Bridge, as an assistant to 

 his brother who had the mill. At that time he was known to 

 the Newcastle naturalists as a good practical botanist, the dis- 

 coverer of several rare plants new to the district, and as a man 

 of information and tastes on other branches of science not usually 

 met with in those in his position. The Rev. John Hodgson, the 

 historian of Northumberland, and the Rev. Anthony Hedley, the 

 antiquary, occasionally availed themselves of his information and 

 assistance in exploring that part of the district. He had some 

 ingenuity in mechanical contrivances, and my informant believes 

 made his own lens for botanical purposes. While he lived in the 

 country he was a good example of a man in the pursuit of know- 

 ledge under difficulties. On his brother leaving the mill he came 

 into Newcastle to seek employment, and his kind friend, Mr. 

 George Burnett, contrived to find for him a place to attend Locke 

 Blackett and Co.'s lead yard, in the Close. Soon after this he 

 married and retired — his wife having a little money of her own. 

 Before the death of his first wife he removed to Gateshead, and 

 afterwards married a second time; and it is gratifying to his 

 friends to know that he enjoyed a comfortable though humble 

 independence and kind nursing in his old age. He joined the 

 Tyneside Club on its first formation, and was one of the most 

 constant attenders at its Field Meetings, generally acting as the 

 guide of the party over his favourite localities of Tyneside and 

 the Northumberland lakes. In eighteen out of the twenty years' 



