John Hamilton Thom

John Hamilton Thom (10 January 1808 – 2 September 1894) was an Irish Unitarian minister.

Life He was a younger son of John Thom (died 1808), born on 10 January 1808 at Newry, County Down, where his father, a native of Lanarkshire, was Presbyterian minister from 1800. His mother was Martha Anne (1779–1859), daughter of Isaac Glenny.

Family On 2 January 1838, married Hannah Mary Rathbone (1816–1872), second daughter of William Rathbone V. They had no children.

Ministry In 1823 he was admitted at the Belfast Academical Institution as a student under the care of the Armagh presbytery. He became assistant to Thomas Dix Hincks as a teacher of classics and Hebrew, while studying theology under Samuel Hanna.

The writings of William Ellery Channing made him a Unitarian; he did not join the Irish remonstrants under Henry Montgomery, but preached his first sermon in July 1829 at Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel, Liverpool. Shortly afterwards he was chosen as the minister of the Ancient Chapel, Toxteth Park, Liverpool.

Other works were:

Memoir prefixed to Sermons by John Hincks, 1832. St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, 1851 (expository sermons). Letters, embracing his Life, by John James Tayler, 1872, 2 vols; 2nd ed. 1873. Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 1883 (sermons); 2nd ser. 1886.

Posthumous were: A Spiritual Faith, 1895 (sermons; with portrait and memorial preface by Martineau). Special Services and Prayers, 1895 (unpublished).

His Hymns, Chants, and Anthems, 1854, was a Unitarian hymn-book.

His papers are held at the University of Liverpool.