Philip Thicknesse

Captain Philip Thicknesse (1719 – 23 November 1792) was an English author, eccentric, and friend of the artist Thomas Gainsborough. He wrote several travel guides. Early life Philip Thicknesse was born in Staffordshire, England, son of John Thicknesse, Rector of Farthinghoe, Northamptonshire, and Joyce (née Blencowe) Thicknesse. He was brought up in Farthinghoe. Career Thicknesse visited the Colony of Georgia in September 1736, but returned to England in 1737, claiming to be the first of the emigrants to return. He obtained a commission as a captain of an independent company in Jamaica after 1737. On an expedition against Jamaican Maroons in the Blue Mountains, he wrote of encounters with Windward Maroon leaders Quao and Queen Nanny. He transferred to a marine regiment as a Captain-Lieutenant in 1740. He was later Lieutenant-Governor of Landguard Fort, Suffolk (1753–1766). Thicknesse was a friend of the society artist Thomas Gainsborough, whom he met in about 1753, and of his less well-known brother, the inventor Humphrey Gainsborough. As an author he wrote for The Gentleman's Magazine. He also published The Speaking Figure and the Automaton Chess Player, Exposed and Detected, a none-too-accurate exposé of a chess-playing machine, The Turk.