David Thompson (New Hampshire settler)
Abt 1592 - Bef 1628

David Thompson or David Thomson (c. 1588 – disappeared 1628) was an early Scot settler of the New England area, considered the founder and first non-native settler of New Hampshire. He was granted a land patent for Thompson Island in Boston Harbor, which continues to bear his name. According to Burke's Landed Gentry (2010), his family—the Thomsons of Corstorphine—are direct descendants of a great-grandson of King Robert II of Scotland, namely, Sir Thomas Stewart, Master of Mar.
Early life and ancestry
David Thompson or Thomson was born in Corstorphine, a village in the Kingdom of Scotland. His father was the Reverend Richard Thomson, who had received an ecclesiastical appointment from James VI of Scotland (reigned 1567–1625). The identity of David's mother is unknown. His stepmother (Richard Thomson's second wife) was Agnes Foulis.
Richard Thomson was the son of Bernard Thomson and Agnes Balzert. His paternal grandparents were Alexander Thomson and Janet Gourlay, daughter of Baron William Gourlay, 9th of Kincraig.
The public source identifies “David Thompson (New Hampshire settler)” as abt 1592 - Bef 1628. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Thompson and Hampshire.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Thompson (New Hampshire settler)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.