Memorial card for Thomas Bonsor Crompton (1792-1858), printed and embossed card with black border. De La Rue & Co, London, 1858

White card with deep black border and embossed portrait of a man in profile, based on a medallion by Wyon, memorial text beneath printed in black.

Given by Mr. G. L. Newman

This memorial card features an embossed portrait of Thomas Bonsor Crompton, attributed by the accessions register to Laurence Charles Wyon. However, there is no information available about an artist by this name, though there is a great deal of information available on Leonard Charles Wyon, (1826-1891) son of the prominent medallist William Wyon, RA (1795–1851) official chief engraver at the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death. Leonard also produced medallions and a great number of coins for the Royal Mint. It is very possible that Laurence Charles Wyon was identified in error for Leonard.

The subject of the card, Thomas Bonsor Crompton, was a successful paper manufacturer and cotton spinner, and a renowned businessman. The text of his obituary from The Gentleman's Magazine is as follows:

'DIED
September 3 - At the residence of Thomas Delarue, Esq., the Hassels, Sandy, Beds., aged 66, Mr. Thomas Bonsor Crompton, of Farnworth Mills, Lancashire.

He was born May 20, 1792 at Farnworth, a place which owes its rise from the obscurity of a rural hamlet to its present populous and prosperous condition in great part to the enterprise to Mr. Crompton's family. His grandfather had a paper mill and bleach works at Great Leaver, about half a mile distant from the existing Farnworth Mills. Perceiving what an eligible site Farnworth presented for manufacturing purposes, he obtained a lease of the property from the late Duke of Bridgewater, and built a paper mill and bleach works upon it. His son John, the father of the subject of the present memoir, succeeded to those works, and built Rock Hall as a residence. He was not, however, permitted to occupy it, having died at the very period of its completion, leaving three sons, John, Robert and Thomas Bonsor. The eldest and youngest became partners in the Farnworth Mills. John, the eldest brother, died in 1835, leaving a widow, without issue.

From that period to the time of his own death, last week, Mr. T. B. Crompton was the sole proprietor of that extensive concern. He was amongst the first to turn the waste of cotton mills to account in the manufacture of paper, and was certainly one of the foremost who applied fibrous material in its raw condition to that purpose. He was always searching for new materials, and contrived several mechanical appliances for utilising fibres hitherto considered unsuitable for being made into paper. From his many transactions with the metropolitan and provincial press, Mr. Crompton became an extensive newspaper proprietor. There are very few, indeed, of the established London papers that have not at some time or other wholly or in part his property. Some years since he became proprietor of the "Morning Post" which shared in the benefits of his great experience, and became, under his protection, the flourishing property that it now is.

But the extensive transactions of Mr. Crompton were not confined to papermaking; he was also a large manufacturer of cotton. About twenty-five years ago he erected at Prestolee, about two miles from Farnworth, a very extensive cotton mill, giving employment to upwards of 800 hands. He was also connected to many other markets for capital, and was known throughout the commercial world for the untiring perseverance and the enviable skill by which he won the position which he occupied at the time of his decease, with so much credit to himself and usefulness to his fellow-creatures.'

The Gentleman's Magazine, November 1858, pp.534-5

E.669-1950