Mr. Thompson, at the time of his appointment, was Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. According to Wood he was "a Dutchman, born of English parents." By the Presbyterian divines, he was called "the grand propagator of Arminianism." Of the prelatic Arminians Coleridge too truly said, that "they emptied revelation of all the doctrines that can properly be said to have been revealed". If "sin be the greatest heresy," as that class usually affirms, a more serious error imputed to Mr. Thompson is intemperance in his later years. As to his literary qualifications, he is described by the learned Richard Montague as "a most admirable philologer," who was "better known in Italy, France, and Germany, than at home."