Thompson, Charles, 1894, Obituary

Hon. Charles Pinkney Thompson, judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and ex-member of Congress, born at Braintree, 30 July, 1827, died at Gloucester, 19 January, 1894.

Judge Thompson was admitted to the bar in 1854. He made his home in Gloucester in 1877, where he built up a large and lucrative law practice, being at all limes a safe counsellor. He represented Gloucester in the Legislature in 1871 and 1872, taking an active part in all matters which came before that body. He represented the old Seventh District in Congress, in 1875-7, securing an election over the popular general, Benjamin F. Butler. As chairman of the House Committee "on the recent election in Florida," in 1877, he was brought prominently before the public as a staunch defender of the claim, that Samuel J. Tilden had been duly elected to the presidency of the United States. Returning from Congress with high honors, Judge Thompson, in 1880-81, was his party's candidate for governor. He served Gloucester on the School Board, 1859, '60, '61, '62; was city solicitor, 1874-5-7-8-9; a director in the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library, and was one of the executors of the estate of the late Samuel E. Sawyer. He was appointed a justice of the Superior Court, by Governor Robinson, in 1S85. Judge Thompson was in every sense a man of the people, and his genial presence will long be cherished by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

1. Essex-County Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol. 1, No. 2, February, 1894, page 30.