John Reuben Thompson, Jr., was born in Richmond, Virginia, on 23 October 1823, where his Vermonter father moved after marrying Sarah Dyckman of New York. Prospering as the owner of a hat, cap, and fur store, Thompson's father in 1836 sent the boy to East Haven, Connecticut, for schooling before enrolling him in the Richmond Academy for three years. Between 1840 and 1842 Thompson was an indifferent student at the University of Virginia, but he graduated with a bachelor of arts in chemistry. After serving two years in Richmond as a law clerk for James A. Seddon, he returned to take his bachelor of laws degree in 1845. He returned to Richmond and practiced law until 1850.

Thompson was a lifelong bachelor with many women friends but without any known romances. He dressed so fashionably that some thought him a dandy, albeit sometimes a rather Bohemian one in a cape, plaid trousers, and a Tyrolean...