19 Facts About Charles Thomson

1.

Charles Thomson was an Irish-born patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence.

2.

Charles Thomson was born in Maghera, County Londonderry, Ireland, to Scots-Irish migrants, Mr and Mrs John Charles Thomson.

3.

John Charles Thomson died at sea, his possessions stolen, and the penniless boys were separated on arrival at New Castle, Delaware.

4.

Charles Thomson was first cared for by a blacksmith in New Castle and was educated in New London, Pennsylvania.

5.

Charles Thomson served as secretary at the 1758 Treaty of Easton and wrote An Enquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawanese Indians from the British Interest, which blamed the war on the proprietors.

6.

Charles Thomson was allied with Benjamin Franklin, the leader of the anti-proprietary party, but the two men parted politically during the crisis over the Stamp Act 1765.

7.

Charles Thomson was inducted into the American Philosophical Society around 1750.

8.

Charles Thomson was a leader in the revolution of the early 1770s.

9.

Charles Thomson served as the secretary of the Continental Congress in its entirety.

10.

Political disagreements prevented Charles Thomson from getting a position in the new government created by the US Constitution.

11.

Charles Thomson then accompanied Washington to New York for his inauguration.

12.

Charles Thomson prepared a work of over 1,000 pages that covered the political history of the American Revolution.

13.

Charles Thomson spent his final years at Harriton House, working on a translation of the Septuagint version of the Bible.

14.

Charles Thomson's was the first English translation of the Septuagint published.

15.

Charles Thomson published a synopsis of the Four Evangelists in 1815.

16.

Charles Thomson was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.

17.

Charles Thomson was initially interred beside his wife in the Harrison Family Cemetery at Harriton.

18.

Charles Thomson was portrayed by Ralston Hill in both the 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and its 1972 film version.

19.

Charles Thomson is depicted on the 1975 seven-cent postal card, Scott Nos.