Andrew Mitchell Thomson

Andrew Mitchell Thomson (1779–1831) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, known as an evangelical activist and political reformer.

Life The second son of the Rev. John Thomson, D.D., by his first wife, Helen Forrest, he was born in the manse at Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, where his father was minister, on 11 July 1779. Educated at the parish school of Markinch, Fife after his father had moved there, and at Edinburgh University which he left in 1800, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Kelso; but before receiving a clerical charge he was schoolmaster at Markinch. In 1802 he was appointed parish minister at Sprouston, Roxburghshire. In 1808 he was transferred to the East Church, Perth; in 1810 to New Greyfriars, Edinburgh; and in 1814, on the opening of the church, moved within the city to St George's Church. There he remained until his death.

When the Edinburgh town council presented Thomson to Greyfriars, there was strong opposition; but he became one of the influential Edinburgh preachers. He promoted singing at his church, and an improved psalmody in Scottish church worship. He issued a new set of tunes, some of which he composed himself, "Redemption" and "St. George's, Edinburgh" being among them. He declined the offer of the degree of D.D. from Columbia College, New York, in 1818, but accepted the same honorary degree when Aberdeen University offered it in 1823.

He died suddenly in the street, when returning from a meeting of presbytery, to his home at 29 Melville Street in Edinburgh's West End, on 9 February 1831. Thomas Chalmers preached one of his funeral sermons, and he was buried in the Dean Cemetery. Sermons and Sacramental Exhortations, Edinburgh, 1831. The Doctrine of Universal Pardon, Edinburgh, 1830.

Thomson edited and wrote in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, which he founded in 1810. The Instructor was edited after his death by Marcus Dods who was another major contributor.

Thomson contributed to David Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia, of which he was part proprietor.

Artistic recognition

He was portrayed by Sir Henry Raeburn.