Thompson Family – Market & Hay Streets

This Heritage Site, situated at the corner of Market and Hay Streets, is the home of the late William Edward Thompson and his wife, the former Corene Hutcheson and their children: the late Archdeacon William Edward Thompson (Willie), pictured at right, Bishop Gilbert Arthur Thompson (Arthur), pictured at left below, and Dr. Philip Thompson. The Thompsons were Baptists. Their grandfather was Reverend Gilbert Thompson who was a pastor in New York. He also pastored at St. John’s Baptist Church, Meeting Street and Metropolitan Baptist Church, Hay Street. Reverend A. E. Hutcheson was Corene Thompson’s father, and she also had a brother the Reverend Ernest Asquith Hutcheson. The Reverend Dr. H. W. Brown, long serving Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Meeting Street, was her mother’s brother. His father had been the Methodist Society Steward at Hatchet Bay, Eleuthera.

When they were infants, the Thompson brothers were prayed for in the Baptist Church. However, they were taken to St. Agnes Church by their cousin, Mae Adora Strachan, when she came from Rum Cay and lived with her aunt, Mrs. Maud Harriet Deveaux Thompson. Mrs. Thompson, who had been baptized at St. Christopher’s Anglican Church, Rum Cay, by Father Marshall Cooper, the second black Anglican priest in the Diocese, abut 1890, married the Reverend Gilbert Thompson, a Baptist minister. On his death she returned to the Anglican faith. Mrs. Thompson was matriarch of the family, a proud descendent of the Deveaux family of Port Howe, Cat Island. Bishop Thompson recalls that he and Willie were about five and six years old respectively, when they were baptized by Father George Loran Pyfrom at St. Agnes. When they were children the brothers attended Sunday School at St. Agnes as well as Bible study classes at Transfiguration Baptist Church.

In their formative first twelve years everyone in the immediate Hay Street and Market Street neighbourhood got along well and there was no snobbery. They all had pride in their community and strong bonds of friendship. The Brown yard on Market and Hay Streets where mostly people from Cat Island lived, was the usual site for the jump in dance at night on festive occasions. Children were mostly spectators. The children were involved in sporting events such as cricket and softball; they attended the movies and played cowboys and crooks. Bishop Thompson also recalls that in the forties Mrs. Agnes Mackey always took a band with her when she travelled to Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera for the August Monday excursion. He also noted that Mrs. Diana Newbold of Hay Street East, who was a member of St. Agnes Choir, had an organ and a piano in her house. She was the grandmother of the Pinders. Her son, William, before moving to Florida, was the organist at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Nassau.

[Archdeacon Thompson was married to the former Rosemarie Bailey. In December 1999 he retired as Rector of St. Agnes having served in that capacity for 32 years. Tragically, in May 2000 he was shot during an attempted armed robbery at the rectory and succumbed to his injuries a month later in June 2000.]

Activities and events at St. Agnes included early exposure to classical musical preludes that were played on the Hammond organ before church services, concerts, plays and tableaus directed by Sister Thecla Mary. The tableau was a format in which a story was read while individuals acted the parts as the story was being told. The concerts, tableaus and plays were regular events at St. Agnes. Bishop Thompson recalls that on some occasions Cleveland Reeves came and played jazz on the piano which was not very familiar to many at the time. During the late forties there were the Boys and Girls Brigades led by Fr. Pyfrom. The boys’ uniform was composed of red jackets and blue trousers with yellow stripes. Before the Anglican Young People’s Association (AYPA) was formed the club of St. Agnes’ youth was called the Gardenia Club. It was open to all the young people in the area.

Bishop Thompson is married to the former Olga Louise Major. The Thompson family is pictured at left on the occasion of the Bishop’s 50th Anniversary to the Priesthood. The service was held at Christ Church Cathedral, George Street., Nassau, Bahamas. His daughter, Angela, who is separated from Patrick Williams, has a daughter, Falon. Heather, who is married to Clement Maynard, Jr., has two daughters Amelia and Mary. Gilbert who is married to Dr. Jahzeel Thompson, the granddaughter of Commissioner James Campbell, has a son Gilbert III. Angela is a music teacher and Gilbert and Heather are lawyers.

Bishop Thompson remembers the lessons that he and his brother learnt while sitting on the porch and listening to conversations of the adults who usually gathered there to socialize and discuss world and local affairs. Sometimes the group moved to the porch of their cousin, Wilfred S. Coakley, Sr. on Lewis Street, but the Thompson house was the main site because more people travelled on Market Street and stopped to join in the conversations. The discussions were led by Reverend Jerome Hutcheson, the Pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, Hay Street, and they were often joined by persons such as Lawyer A. F. Adderley and Sir Alvin Braynen. There, the two older Thompson brothers listened as their elders talked about history, World War II and the Nazis, and as a result, the art of conversation became a part of the learning experience. Bishop Thompson commented that in those days Messrs. Adderley and Toote were the only two black lawyers around and, as a mark of respect, they were referred to as Lawyer Adderley and Lawyer Toote.

Dr. Philip Thompson is a surgeon who practices at the Lucayan Medical Centre in Freeport, Grand Bahama. He was born almost tirteen years after his second brother and became the “pet” of the family. Prince and Willie “Mays” Francis, who lived across the street, also spent a lot of time at the Thompson house.