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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas, John (1696-1781)

​THOMAS, JOHN (1696–1781), successively bishop of Peterborough, Salisbury, and Winchester, was the son of Stremer Thomas, a colonel in the guards; he was born on 17 Aug. 1696 at Westminster, and educated at Charterhouse school (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 28 March 1713, and took the degrees of B.A. 1716, M.A. 1719, B.D. 1727, and D.D. 1731. In 1720 he was elected fellow of All Souls' College, and, having been disappointed of a living promised to him by a friend of his father, took a curacy in London. Here his preaching attracted attention; in 1731 he was given a prebend in St. Paul's, and was presented by the dean and chapter in 1733 to the rectory of St. Bene't and St. Peter, Paul's Wharf, which he retained till 1757; in 1742 he succeeded to a canonry of St. Paul's, and held it till 1748. In 1742 he had been made one of George II's chaplains, and preached the Boyle lectures, which he did not publish; and, having secured the favour of the king when Prince of Wales, he was at last ‘popped into’ the bishopric of Peterborough, and consecrated at Lambeth on 4 Oct. 1747.
In 1752 he was selected to succeed Thomas Hayter [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, as preceptor to the young Prince of Wales, afterwards George III, Lord Waldegrave being governor; these appointments were directed ​against the influence of the princess dowager. In 1757 he followed John Gilbert [q. v.], as bishop of Salisbury and also as clerk of the closet, and in 1761 was translated to Winchester in succession to Benjamin Hoadly (1676–1761) [q. v.] He seems to have been a useful bishop as well as a good preacher, though Hurd (Kilvert, Life of Hurd, p. 119) speaks rather contemptuously of ‘Honest Tom's’ laxity about patronage.
He died at Winchester House, Chelsea, on 1 May 1781, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. He married Susan, daughter of Thomas Mulso of Twywell, Northamptonshire; her brother Thomas married the bishop's sister, and their daughter, Mrs. Hester Chapone [q. v.], spent much of her time after her husband's death with her uncle and aunt at Farnham Castle. Mrs. Thomas died on 19 Nov. 1778, leaving three daughters, who married respectively Newton Ogle, dean of Winchester; William Buller, afterwards bishop of Exeter; and Rear-admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle.
There are portraits of the bishop at the palaces of Salisbury and Lambeth, and a fine mezzotint engraving (three-quarter length in robes of the Garter) by R. Sayer from a picture by Benjamin Wilson, published on 24 Jan. 1771. Richardson the novelist, in a letter to Miss Mulso, alludes to ‘the benign countenance of my good lord of Peterborough,’ a phrase which is borne out by the portraits.
John Thomas published ten or eleven separate discourses, chiefly spital, fast, or charity sermons. He is credited with some scholarship, and with taste in letter-writing.
H. E. D. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas, John (1712-1793)

1904 Errata appended.
​THOMAS, JOHN (1712–1793), bishop of Rochester, born at Carlisle on 14 Oct. 1712, was the eldest son of John Thomas (d. 1747), vicar of Brampton in Cumberland, by his wife Ann, daughter of Richard Kelsick of Whitehaven, a captain in the merchant service. The younger Thomas was educated at the Carlisle grammar school, whence he proceeded to Oxford, matriculating from Queen's College on 17 Dec. 1730. Soon after his admission he received a clerkship from the provost, Joseph Smith (1670–1756) [q. v.] After completing his terms he became assistant master at an academy in Soho Square, and afterwards private tutor to the younger son of Sir William Clayton, bart., whose sister he afterwards married. On 27 March 1737 Thomas was ordained a deacon, and on 25 Sept. received priest's orders. On 27 Jan. 1737–8 he was instituted rector of Bletchingley in Surrey, a living in the gift of Sir William Clayton. He graduated B.C.L. on 6 March 1741–2, and D.C.L. on 25 May 1742, and on 18 Jan. 1748–9 he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to George II, a post which he also retained under George III. On 23 April 1754 he was made a prebendary of Westminster, and in 1762 he was appointed sub-almoner to the archbishop of York. On 7 Jan. 1766 he was instituted to the vicarage of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, and in 1768 he became dean of Westminster and of the order of the Bath. On 13 Nov. 1774 he was consecrated bishop of Rochester. He signalised his episcopacy by repairing the deanery at Rochester and rebuilding the bishop's palace at Bromley, which was in a ruinous state. He died at Bromley on 22 Aug. 1793, and was buried in the vault of the parish church of Bletchingley. He was twice married: first, in 1742, to Anne, sister of Sir William Clayton, bart., and widow of Sir Charles Blackwell, bart. She died on 7 July 1772, and on 12 Jan. 1776 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Baldwin of Munslow in Shropshire, and widow of Sir Joseph Yates [q. v.], judge of the court of king's bench. He left no children. Among other bequests he founded two scholarships at Queen's College for sons of clergymen educated at the grammar school at Carlisle, and during his lifetime he bestowed two similar scholarships on Westminster school.
Thomas's ‘Sermons and Charges’ were collected and edited after his death by his nephew, George Andrew Thomas, in 1796 (London, 8vo, 3rd ed. 1803). Several of his sermons were published separately in his lifetime. His portrait in the robes of the Bath, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was formerly in the library of Queen's College. An engraving from it by Joseph Baker is prefixed to his ‘Sermons and Charges.’
E. I. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.264 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas, Frederick Jennings

​THOMAS, FREDERICK JENNINGS (1786–1855), rear-admiral, younger son of Sir John Thomas (1749–1828) of Wenvoe Castle, Glamorganshire, fifth baronet, by his wife Mary, daughter of John Parker of Hasfield Court, Gloucestershire, was born on 19 April 1786. He entered the navy in March 1799 on board the Boston on the North American station, and afterwards in the West Indies. In the autumn of 1803 he joined the Prince of Wales, flagship of Sir Robert Calder [q. v.], and was present in the action of 22 July 1805. On 19 Sept. he was appointed acting lieutenant of the Spartiate, and in her was present in the battle of Trafalgar. His commission as lieutenant was confirmed on 14 Feb. 1806. He continued in the Spartiate off Rochefort, and afterwards in the Mediterranean till November 1809, when he was for a few months on board the Antelope, the flagship of Sir John Duckworth, and was then sent to Cadiz, where he was employed for the next three years in the defence of the town against the French flotilla; was promoted to be commander on 4 March 1811, and second in command of the English flotilla. Towards the end of 1813 he was acting captain of the San Juan, the flagship of Rear-admiral Samuel Hood Linzee at Gibraltar. He was posted on 8 Dec. 1813, and returned to Eng​land with Linzee in the Eurotas in 1814. He had no further employment afloat, but married on 7 Aug. 1816, Susannah, daughter of Arthur Atherley of Southampton, and seems to have settled down in that neighbourhood. He accepted the retired rank of rear-admiral on 1 Oct. 1846, and died at Hill, near Southampton, on 19 Dec. 1855, leaving three sons and a daughter. He was buried at Millbrook, near Southampton.
J. K. L.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thomas, John (1795-1871)

​THOMAS, JOHN (1795–1871), musical composer and Welsh song writer, also known as Ieuan Ddu, was born at Pibwr Llwyd, near Carmarthen, in 1795. He was educated at Carmarthen, where subsequently he also kept a school for a short time. He then removed to Glamorganshire to follow the same occupation, and, except for a short period when he was clerk to Zephania Williams the chartist, at Blaenau, Monmouthshire, his whole life was spent in keeping a private school of his own, first at Merthyr Tydfil, and from 1850 on at Pontypridd and Treforest successively. He was twice married and died at Treforest on 30 June 1871, being buried at Glyntaff cemetery, where a monument was erected over his grave by his ‘friends and pupils.’
Thomas was one of the chief pioneers of choral training in the mining district of Glamorganshire, and is justly described in his epitaph as ‘the first to lay the foundation of that prevailing taste for music which attained its triumph in the Crystal Palace (choral competition) in the years 1872 and 1873.’ For many years he regularly held musical classes at Merthyr and Pontypridd. In 1845 he published a collection of Welsh airs entitled ‘Y Caniedydd Cymreig: the Cambrian Minstrel,’ Merthyr, 4to. This contained forty-three pieces of his own composition and a hundred and four old Welsh airs, one half of which he had gathered from the lips of the peasantry of Carmarthenshire and Glamorganshire, and which had never been previously published. For almost all these airs he wrote both the Welsh and English songs, several of which have been adopted in subsequent collections of Welsh music (cf. Brinley Richards, Songs of Wales, pp. iii, 39, 62, 68, 70). In 1849 he published a poem on ‘The Vale of Taff’ (Merthyr, 8vo), which was followed in 1867 by a volume of poetry entitled ‘Cambria upon Two Sticks.’ Thomas also contributed many papers to magazines, and a prize essay of his on the Welsh harp was published in the ‘Cambrian Journal’ for 1855.
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorne, James (1815-1881)

​THORNE, JAMES (1815–1881), antiquary, born in London in September 1815, was educated at a private school, and for several years afterwards worked as an artist. While a young man he supplied short articles on antiquarian subjects to the ‘Mirror,’ ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and other publications, the result of research in libraries and of frequent rambles through many districts of England. In 1843 he became connected with Charles Knight [q. v.], and they worked together for more than twenty-five years, the proof-sheets of Knight's compositions often deriving much advantage from the suggestions of his coadjutor.
Thorne contributed, under Knight's direction, many topographical articles to the second series of the ‘Penny Magazine,’ and wrote large portions, besides supplying many illustrations, of the four volumes, entitled ‘The Land we live in.’ Knight's series of weekly and monthly volumes comprised Thorne's volumes of ‘Rambles by Rivers.’ The first, describing ‘the Duddon, Mole, Adur, Arun, Wey, Lea, and Dove,’ appeared in 1844, with numerous woodcuts from the author's drawings. The second on ‘the Avon’ came out in 1845, with illustrations mostly by William Harvey, and the two volumes on ‘the Thames,’ with all their illustrations by Harvey, are dated 1847 and 1849. In these descriptions, as in all Thorne's writings, history and antiquity are pleasantly blended with ‘gleanings of fairy and folk lore.’ He was working editor of the two volumes on geography in ‘The Imperial Cyclopædia,’ 1852, and of the ‘English Cyclopædia,’ with its supplements, and for twenty-five years he wrote for the ‘Companion to the British Almanac.’ The reissue (1873) of the ‘Passages of a Working Life,’ by Charles Knight, contained an ‘introductory note’ by Thorne.
Thorne's energies were for several years devoted to the compilation of the two volumes of his ‘Handbook to the Environs of London,’ 1876. They were the result of ‘personal examination and inquiry,’ and must be consulted by every student of the scenery, or of the historic associations, of the buildings and remains for twenty miles around London. His great knowledge and immense industry are shown throughout its pages. At the time of his death he was engaged in preparing a new edition of Peter Cunningham's ‘Handbook of London.’ He thoroughly ‘revised the work, and added much fresh information and many illustrative quotations.’ The ‘revision’ was completed on an elaborate scale by Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A., in 1891 (see preface to his London Past and Present). After a painful illness, lasting for nearly twelve months, Thorne died at 52 Fortess Road, Kentish Town, on 3 Sept. 1881, leaving a widow and several children in poor circumstances. Thorne was elected F.S.A. on 21 March 1872.
[Times, 6 Sept. 1881, p. 1, 7 Sept. p. 10; Athenæum, 10 Sept. 1881, p. 336 (by C. Tomlinson); Academy, 10 Sept. 1881, p. 199; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iv. 260.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorne, John

​THORNE, JOHN (d. 1573), musician and poet, was probably connected with York Minster, perhaps as teacher of the choristers. He is called ‘Thorne of York’ in a contemporary manuscript [see Redford, John]; and he was buried in the minster, his epitaph celebrating his skill in logic as well as in music, and giving the date of his death 9 Dec. 1573. Morley (Introduction to Practicall Musicke, 1597) mentions Thorne among the list of composers whose works he had studied, placing him after John Taverner [q. v.] and Redford; and reckons him (p. 96) with Redford and Thomas Tallis [q. v.] among the musicians specially distinguished in composing upon a plain-song. Only three of Thorne's compositions are extant: an ‘Exultabant sancti’ in Redford's writing in Addit. MS. 29996 (f. 38), an ‘In nomine’ in the collection at the music school, Oxford, and a ‘Stella cœli extirpavit’ in Baldwin's manuscript at Buckingham Palace. The last-named was printed by Hawkins. Ambros (Geschichte der Musik, ed. Kade, iii. 458) considers it a little behind the contemporary Flemish style, although he describes the part-writing as quite sterling and animated, interesting by its most successful imitations, the harmony sonorous, the effect of the whole thoroughly noble and significant.
Thorne also wrote some verse. In the manuscript which contains Redford's ‘Wyt and Science’ (printed by the Shakespeare Society) are three poems by Thorne. One is a religious version of Gray's popular ballad ‘The hunt is up;’ the others were subsequently printed in R. Edwards's ‘Paradyse of Daintie Devyces’ (1576), one being there signed ‘M[r]. Thorn,’ the other anonymous. ​Another piece in Edwards's, collection (No. 21) is also signed ‘M. T.,’ and is probably by Thorne.
H. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorne, William (1568?-1630)

​THORNE, WILLIAM (1568?–1630), orientalist, born at Semley, Wiltshire, in 1568 or 1569, entered Winchester College in 1582. Proceeding to New College, Oxford, he matriculated on 15 April 1586, and was elected a fellow in the year following. He graduated B.A. on 12 April 1589, M.A. on 18 Jan. 1592-3, B.D. on 16 July 1600, and D.D. on 8 July 1602. On 12 March 1596-7 he was licensed to preach, and from 27 July 1598 until 1604 he filled the office of regius professor of Hebrew. On 30 Dec. 1601 he was installed dean of Chichester, and in the same year received the rectory of Tollard Royal, Wiltshire, resigning his fellowship in 1602. In 1606 he was appointed vicar of Amport, Hampshire; in 1607 a canon of Chichester and rector of Birdham, Sussex. In 1616 he became rector of North Marden, Sussex, and in 1619 of Warblington, Hampshire. He died on 13 Feb. 1629-30, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral.
Thorne was a distinguished hebraist and oriental scholar, and was held in esteem on the continent as well as in England. John Drusius dedicated to him 'his' 'Opuscula quae ad Grammaticam spectant' (1609), and Charles Fitzgeffrey [q. v.] devotes an epigram to him in his 'Affaniae sive Epigrammatum libri tres' (1601).
Thorne was the author of: 1. 'Willelmi Thorni Tullius, seu ῥήτωρ, in tria stromata divisus,' Oxford, 1592, 8vo. 2. 'Ἔσοπτρον Βασιλικόν. Or a Kenning-Glasse for a Christian King. Dedicated to James I,' London, 1603, 8vo.
E. I. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorne, William (fl.1397)

​THORNE, WILLIAM (fl. 1397), historian, was a monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. On 19 April 1387 he was sent as proctor to sue out the papal confirmation for the election of a new abbot. Detained for eight days at Orwell, he did not land till 5 May. He reached Lucca on 11 June, and then had to follow the pope from Lucca to Perugia and Rome for more than a year. He gives a detailed account of the procrastinations, dishonesty, and corruption of the papal court, with a table of charges incurred by the monastery during the vacancy. He failed to secure the confirmation, and the abbot had to come in person. While in Italy Thorne recovered for his monastery the possession of the rectory of Littleborne, Kent, the patronage of which had passed to the monastery of St. Mary de Monte Mirteto of the order of Flora in the diocese of Velletri, where only two monks resided. He concluded his business in January 1390, and started home on the 20th. On his arrival he hurried with all speed to meet the king at Langley on 5 April. His history of the abbots of St. Augustine's, extending from the foundation to 1397, is a work of considerable importance. The first part to 1228 was largely taken from the work of Thomas Sprott [q. v.] It is extant in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS. G. vii. 8 and Cotton. MS. Titus A. ix., and was printed by Twysden in his ‘Decem Scriptores,’ 1652.
M. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walter, William

​WALTER, WILLIAM (fl. 1520), translator, is described on the title-pages of his books as 'servaunt to Syr Henry Marney, knight, chaunceler of the duchy of Lancastre.' Marney was chancellor from 1509 to 1523, in which year he was created Baron Marney, dying a month later (G. E. Cokayne). Complete Peerage, v. 259). It is therefore probable that Walter's works were written earlier than is indicated by the date of publication of his first work. Possibly he is the Walter whose services in Paris were so useful to Thomas Lupset [q. v.] in 1528 (Letters and Papers, iv. 4022-3).
His works are: 1. 'Guystarde and Sygysmonde. Here foloweth the amerous hystory of Guistarde and Sygysmonde and of theyr dolorous deth by her father, newly translated out of laten into englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, servaunt to Syr Henry Marney, knight, chaunceler of the duchy of Lancastre. Imprinted at London in Flete Strete at the sygne of the Sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. In the yere of our lords 1532,' 4to. The poem was reprinted for the Roxburghe Club in 1818. It is written in seven-line stanzas, with occasional additional stanzas in the same metre inserted by R. Coplande by way of edifying comment. The Latin may be Leonard Aretino's version of Boccaccio's story. The poem is different from 'The statelie Tragedy of Guistard and Sismond' which occurs in ' Certaine worthye Manuscript Poems of great Antiquitie . . . published by J. S.,' London, 1597; Edinburgh, 1812; but the metre is the same, and neither poem is directly from Boccaccio. 2. 'The Spectacle of Lovers. Hereafter foloweth a lytell contravers dyalogue between love and councell with many goodly argumentes of good women and bad, very compendyous to all estates, newly compyled by William Walter, servaunt unto Syr Henry Marnaye, knyght, Chauncelour of the Duchy of Lancastre. Imprynted at London in Flete Strete at the sygne of the Sonne by me, Wynkyn de Worde,' n.d., 4to. There is a short account of this poem, which is apparently a translation, in Collier's 'Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature' (ii. 378, 482). Robert Coplande writes l'envoy. 3. 'Tytus and Gesyppus. Here begynneth the hystory of Tytus and Gesyppus translated out of latyn in to englyshe by Wyllyam Walter, sometymeservante to Syr Henry Marney,knyght, chaunceler of the duchy of Lancastre. Emprynted at London in the Flete Strete at the sygne of the Sonne by me, Wynkyn de Worde,' n.d., 4to. The poem is described in Dibdin's edition of Herbert's Ames.
[Dibdin's edition of Herbert's Ames, ii. 292, 337, 338; Warton's English Poetry, iii. 188, iv. 339; none of the original editions of Walter's works are in the Brit. Mus. Libr.]
R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walter of Palermo

​WALTER of Palermo (fl. 1170), archbishop of Palermo, primate and chancellor of Sicily, was sent to Sicily by Henry II of England as an instructor for young William II of Sicily, for whom Henry had destined his daughter Johanna. So at least Pits reports, but others make Walter the tutor of the Sicilian princes during the lifetime of the old King William. Peter of Blois [q. v.], a friend and correspondent of Walter, succeeded him as tutor of the young king when the Englishman became archbishop of Palermo. Walter was first archdeacon of Cefalù in the province of Palermo, then dean of Girgenti; then under William II he was, according to Hugo Falcandus, violently thrust upon the see of Palermo, ​against the will of the canons (March 1168). A party at court, headed by the queen mother, opposed his election, and tried to persuade Alexander III to annul it. Their protests were, however, in vain; the pope not only confirmed the 'election' of Walter, but by a special grace excused him from coming to Rome for consecration, 'and sent him the pallium by the hands of John, cardinal of Naples.' Walter now became one of the chief ministers of the Sicilian kingdom, and, after a long rivalry with Matthew the chancellor, displaced the latter in his office, and united it with his archbishopric. It was at his instance that William II gave his 'friend' Constantia in marriage to Henry, the German king (Henry VI), son of Frederic Barbarossa, and ordered all his nobles to swear to the succession of Henry and Constantia (1188), if the reigning sovereign left no heirs. William died without children in 1189 (December); but Walter's plans about the succession were foiled, and Tancred, count of Lecce,was brought to Sicily and crowned king. Walter held the see of Palermo for twenty-five years 'with great praise' (1168-1193); he wrote some works, of which not even the titles have survived, except in one instance a book on the rudiments of the Latin language. In 1172 we hear of Walter visiting Salerno with the king, William II, and 'Matthew the vice-chancellor;' in 1178 the envoys of the Emperor Frederic, sent to conclude a peace with King William, were insulted by Sicilian rustics, and made their complaint to Walter, 'ammiratus et archiepiscopus.' He left the 'guardianship of the royal person and palace' to Count Gentili de Palear. In 1188 Walter and Matthew are described by Richard of S. Germano as the two strongest pillars of the kingdom, whom all magnates obeyed, and through whom men most easily obtained their requests of the sovereign. The archbishopric of Monreale was carved out of the diocese of Palermo in 1188 through the intrigues of Matthew's party against Walter.
Pits wrongly gives the year of Walter's death as 1177; the place was probably Palermo. An interesting letter of Peter of Blois to Walter in 1177 gives him a description of the appearance and habits of Henry II of England, and declares that the king had very little to do with the murder of Thomas Becket. He also urges him to assist pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land.
C. R. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walter, John (d.1412?)

​WALTER or FITZWALTER, JOHN (d. 1412?), astrologer, was educated at Winchester and Oxford. He died at Winchester, and was buried there about 1412 (Wood, Hist. et Ant. Ovon. ii. 133). He wrote 'Canones in tabulas sequationis domorum,' of which there are copies in the Digby and other Bodleian manuscripts. The 'Tabulse ascencionis signorum' in the Cambridge University Library MS. EE. iii. 61, ascribed to John Walter, is stated by Louis Carlyon to be certainly not his.
M. B.