Thomas Napier Thomson (1798-1869) was a Scottish minister, historian and biographer. He was ordained to the charge of the Scottish church in Maitland, New South Wales, for which he sailed in May 1831 with a brother and sister. On arriving at Maitland, there was neither church, manse, nor congregation, so he initiated a charge at Bathurst in July 1832. It was about this time that he married, and shortly after the birth of his second child he resigned his charge and returned to England.
Thomson arrived in England in 1835 and became a professional writer. In July 1844, he left London for Edinburgh, where he had been appointed by the Scottish Free Church as the editor of a series of works it was about to publish. When that ended, he worked in journalism, and in 1851, he became connected with Blackie & Son, the publishers, for whom he later was a staff writer.