On 11 December it will be 99 years since the death of James Thompson (1855-1924). I've mentioned him here a few times, as the Londonderry teenage emigrant who built a distilling empire in Kentucky. So, this time next year it will be exactly a century since James Thompson's death. I have gathered up a body of information about him and his descendants.
George and Isabella Thompson (née Getty) belonged to Faughanvale Presbyterian Church. Three sons (James, Frank and Cuthbert) went to America and three others (John, Samuel and George) stayed in Ulster. George and Samuel became prominent Presbyterian ministers and in fact both were also chaplains to the new Northern Ireland Parliament which was established in 1921 - Samuel was at the foundation stone ceremony for Parliament Buildings. The paradox with that is that they both were probably therefore Unionists, whereas, in August 1913, their Kentucky-based brother James had been offered to stand as a Nationalist candidate for the next Westminster election. He was a vocal 'Home Ruler' and supported the objective, but he declined the offer, saying 'I would rather be a plain citizen of Kentucky than an earl of the Empire'.
James Thompson's cousin and business partner was George Garvin Brown (1846-1917). Together they founded Brown, Thompson & Co. whose brands included Old Forester, which is marketed today as 'The First Bottled Bourbon'. The 2021 edition of the Ulster Historical Foundation's annual journal Familia published superb research by J. McCauley (Mac) Brown and John Garvin Hunter into the Garvin and Brown family and their similar Ulster origins - at Clondermott, just 8 miles away from the Thompson homeplace at Longfield. Here are three original Brown Thompson & Co labels I have managed to acquire.
James decided to leave the partnership. He bought Monarch Distillery in Owensboro which he renamed Glenmore Distillery (Wikipedia here), which was a massive success, with a portfolio of brands including Kentucky Tavern and Old Thompson. His vacant seat at Brown, Thompson & Co was filled by the company accountant, George Forman, and so the Brown-Forman Corporation was born - whose brands today include Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve in the USA, and GlenDronach and BenRiach in Scotland, and Slane in Ireland.
James's sons took over the distilling businesses and retained decades of connections with, and visits to, their Ulster relatives. In 1910 the firm placed an advert in the Derry Journal for a 'family to run boarding house for distillery employees, most of whom are from Derry and vicinity'. This probably shouldn't be a surprise given what a massive industry distilling was in Ulster at the time – the Derry Journal readership catchment area would have included Andrew A Watt's distilleries in Derry and Robert A Taylor's distillery in Coleraine.
One of James's sons, Colonel Frank Barton Thompson (1895-1990; previous post here) took the reins of the company and also carried out exhaustive research into the family origins - his genealogical archives were bequested to the Filson Historical Society in Louisville.
His son Frank B Thompson Jr (1933-1975), became Chairman of the company but on his being diagnosed with cancer in 1974 he was succeeded in that role by his brother, James 'Buddy' Thompson (1932-2019). Guinness bought the company in 1991.
Before Buddy died, on 5th April 2019, a commemorative James Thompson & Brother Final Reserve 45 year old bourbon was released - marketed as 'the oldest bourbon in history' (see Bourbon Pursuit podcast episode here) with its profits donated to veterans charities.
So, from James' emigration from Ulster in 1871, until Buddy's death in 2019, was just three generations.
Back in Ulster, the family farm at Coolafinney near Eglinton continued to be farmed by the family, and by Frank Thompson (full name Samuel Francis Thompson) until his death in 1958, when it was all auctioned.
So, maybe there is a project in pulling all of this together. Yet more of our transatlantic kinfolk.
NB: the images on this post are of the 150th anniversary Brown-Forman Corporation commemorative book, a beautiful production which was published in 2020 by Assouline.
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