The mother of this Richard Tomson was an Antwerp woman, and one of her Flemish nephews, James Fesser, was a shipowner at Beeston.
Richard Tomson was for some years engaged in the Mediterranean trade, and in 1582 was involved in litigation with the Turkey company.
In January 1588 he was in Flanders, and was there solicited by some Spaniards to undertake the delivery of a great quantity of iron ordnance, for which he would be handsomely paid.
He refused their offer, and, knowing that the ordnance was for furnishing the Armada, informed Francis Walsingham of it, so that he might prevent the export.
In the summer of 1588 he was lieutenant of the Margaret and John, a merchant ship commanded by Captain John Fisher against the Armada, and mentioned as closely engaged with the galleon of D. Pedro de Valdes during the night after the first battle, in the battle of 23 July, in the capture of the galleass at Calais, and in the battle of Gravelines, of which he wrote an interesting account to Walsingham (Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Navy Records Society, freq.)
Towards the end of the century he was living in London, corresponding occasionally with Robert Cecil.