Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/223

 He left a widow, Frances, and a family in indifferent circumstances, as his pay seems to have been in arrear; and the state papers contain a petition from her for 800l., part of it due for expenditure in works in Tangiers ten years before.

In the British Museum are plans or maps drawn by Phillips of Athlone, 1685; Belfast and the design for erecting a citadel upon the Strand, 1685; Culmore Fort; the bay and harbour of Dublin, 2 sheets, 1685; the fort of Duncannon; a prospect of the fort of Duncannon; the barony of Enishowen, co. Donegal; numerous charts, prospects, and plans of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Herm, dated 1680 (mainly coloured); and a description of the several harbours, bays, landing-places, and castles of Guernsey, illustrated by coloured plans. Macaulay refers to Phillips's map of Belfast as ‘so exact that the houses may be counted’ (History, 1883, ii. 184n.)



PHILLIPS, THOMAS (1708–1774), the biographer of Cardinal Pole, was born at Ickford, Buckinghamshire on 5 July 1708, being descended of a good family. His great-uncle was [q. v.] His father was a convert to the Roman catholic religion, in which he was himself brought up. At an early age he was sent to a protestant school, where he supplied the deficiency in religious teaching by studying the ‘Imitation of Christ,’ the ‘Introduction to a Devout Life,’ and the ‘Lives of the Saints.’ His father soon sent him to the college of the English jesuits at St. Omer, where he carried off the prizes in all the schools. When he had completed his course of rhetoric he entered the novitiate at Watten on 7 Sept. 1726, and he made the simple vows of the Society of Jesus on 8 Sept. 1728. He was then removed to the English College at Liège to study a triennial course of philosophy. Soon after his admission to holy orders his father died, leaving him a fortune which ‘placed him above dependence.’ He travelled through the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy, visiting the universities, and forming many useful friendships.

Towards the end of the third year of his philosophical course, viz. on 17 July 1731, while still retaining the fixed resolution to abide in the Society of Jesus, he made a voluntary renunciation of his actual and contingent property in favour of the college at Liège and of the provincial father, John Turberville. Being passionately fond of classical literature, he subsequently, in the second year of his course of divinity, sought permission from his superiors to conduct a course of humanities at St. Omer. The institute of the society enjoins indifference respecting employments, and his petition was rejected. The refusal piqued his vanity, and on 4 July 1733 he withdrew from the society, though his affection for it suffered no diminution.

He now proceeded to Rome, where Father Henry Sheldon, rector of the English College, introduced him to Prince Charles Edward, who procured for him the appointment to a canonry at Tongres (1 Sept. 1739), with a dispensation to enjoy the proceeds of it while serving the English mission. After his return to England he officiated as chaplain to George, fourteenth earl of Shrewsbury; then to Sir Richard Acton at Aldenham, Shropshire; and subsequently (1763–5) to Mr. Berkeley of Spetchley Park, Worcestershire. Eventually he retired to Liège, where, at his earnest solicitation, he was readmitted to the Society of Jesus on 16 June 1768. He died at Liège in July 1774. Foley says ‘he was a man of eminent piety, and always appeared strongly affected with the idea of the presence of God, particularly in his last illness.’

His principal literary production is:
 * 1) ‘The History of the Life of Cardinal Pole,’ 2 pts., Oxford, 1764, 8vo (reprinted 2 vols., Dublin, 1765, 12mo); 2nd edition, without author's name on the title-page, 2 vols. London, 1767. Phillips's object in writing this valuable piece of biography was to give to the English nation a correct account of the council of Trent from a Roman catholic point of view. The work excited, on the protestant side, a general alarm, and elicited many replies from  (1724–1798) [q. v.],  [q. v.], and others. William Cole's ‘Observations’ on the answers to Phillips's book are in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 5831, f. 117 b). Phillips himself appended to his ‘Study of Sacred Literature,’ 1765, ‘An Answer to the principal Objections.’

His other works are:  Lines ‘To the Right Reverend and Religious Dame Elizabeth Phillips [his sister] on her entering the Religious Order of St. Benet, in the Convent of English Dames of the same Order at Gant,’ privately printed, sine loco [1748?], 4to. Reprinted in the ‘European Magazine,’ September 1796, and in the ‘Catholic Magazine and Review,’ Birmingham, March 1833.  ‘A Letter to a Student at a Foreign  