[2] Sometime around the age of seventeen or eighteen, he left Virginia and lived in Ohio and in Jefferson County, Kentucky, for several years.
In Missouri, Tompkins taught at the first English school in St. Louis, where most inhabitants spoke French.
In 1824, Tompkins was appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court, where he remained until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.
[1] Tompkins' retirement came just a few years before the Dred Scott case was brought before the Missouri Supreme Court.
[2] Upon retirement, Tompkins returned to his farm near Jefferson City, Missouri, where he died on April 7, 1846, at the age of 67.