Born in Sheffield, England, he came to Baltimore around 1794, and soon became a prominent figure in the newly emerging city as a merchant, financier, and company director.

Thompson was public-spirited and used his knowledge of horses in military matters to serve as a cavalry officer in the Maryland State Militia's "Baltimore Light Dragoons", which he joined in 1809 and was elected captain.

He was honored with the position of being Marshall of the Proceedings at the Cornerstone-Laying for both the Battle Monument, (on North Calvert Street, between East Fayette and Lexington Streets), on the first Defenders' Day anniversary of the engagement, September 12, 1815, and the iconic Washington Monument earlier on "Independence Day", July 4, 1815, on a prominence in "Howard's Woods" just north then of the developed city.

In later years, Thompson also served as the Grand Marshall of the festivities in Baltimore surrounding the return and the touring visit to America of the French patriot and American supporter, Marquis de Lafayette, former aide to commanding General George Washington and also General in our Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War in 1824.

In 1838, Clifton was bought by local merchant, financier, and philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795–1873), for his estate and was later developed with a nearby lake and a large sculpture collection.

[2] In 1858, the present Italianate-style Clifton Mansion with its prominent tower was built (pictured), designed by architects John Rudolph Niernsee and James Crawford Neilson.

Even before the city purchased the old Thompson/Hopkins estate from the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees, a portion of the land was used for development of a reservoir for the area's municipal water supply system.

Called Lake Clifton, the 30 acre reservoir was 30 feet deep and had a capacity of 265 million gallons of water when it was completed and put into service on December 27, 1888.

Clifton Park became the central area where Maryland National Guard troops were moved in and out of Baltimore during the riots of April 1968 centering in the Jonestown/Old Town commercial district and surrounding rowhouse residential neighborhood along North Gay Street, following the assassination of the Rev.

Dallas Arthur, a Maryland National Guard soldier, describes the situation as intense when he relates to roadblocks posted near Clifton Park.

[7] In 1916, Peabody Institute trustees gave Baltimore City "On the Trail," a 7-foot-4 bronze sculpture of a Native American man created by local artist/sculptor Edward Berge, placed upon a boulder in Clifton Park.

Still owned by the Church, it is a seven-acre burial ground for about two thousand parishioners of mostly Irish, German, and Italian descent dating back to the mid-19th century.

Built in response to relieve the long-time overcrowding resulting from the post-World War II "baby boom" of the 1950s-60s, Lake Clifton however seemed troubled from the start and had problems extending through its first decade of service from the early 1970s into the 1980s.