Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/189

 delivered the Hunterian oration. In this oration there are some interesting personal reminiscences of Hunter. Thomas was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 16 Jan. 1806. He was also a member of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. He died at Belmont, Torquay, on 26 June 1846. Edward Thomas [q. v.] was his son.

In addition to his Hunterian oration, Thomas published: 1. ‘Description of an Hermaphrodite Lamb’ (London Medical and Physical Journal, ii. 1799). 2. ‘Anatomical Description of a Male Rhinoceros’ (Phil. Trans. 1801, p. 145). 3. ‘Case of Artificial Dilatation of the Female Urethra’ (Med. Chir. Trans. i. 123). 4. ‘Case of Obstruction in the Large Intestines occasioned by a Biliary Calculus of extraordinary size’ (ib. vol. vi. 1845). There is a portrait in oil of Thomas by James Green at the Royal College of Surgeons.

[Lancet, 1846, ii. 26; Proc. Royal Soc. v. 640; Clarke's Autobiographical Recollections of the Medical Profession, p. 113; and private information kindly supplied by Mrs. Foss and F. L. Hutchins, esq., grandchildren of Thomas.]

 THOMAS, JOHN (1691–1766), successively bishop of Lincoln and Salisbury, born on 23 June 1691, was the son of a drayman in Nicholson's brewery in the parish of All Hallows the Great in the city of London, and was sent to the parish school (note in 's Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 28). He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' school on 11 March 1702-3. He graduated B.A. in 1713 and M.A. in 1717 from Catharine Hall, Cambridge, was made D.D. in 1728, and incorporated at Oxford on 11 July of the same year. He became chaplain of the English factory at Hamburg, where he was highly popular with the merchants, published a paper in German called the 'Patriot ' in imitation of the 'Spectator,' and attracted the notice of George II, who voluntarily offered him preferment in England if his ministers would leave him any patronage to bestow. In 1736 he was presented to the rectory of St. Vedast's, Foster Lane; he accompanied the king to Hanover at his personal request, and succeeded Dr. Lockyer as dean of Peterborough in 1740, in spite of the opposition of the Duke of Newcastle (, Autobiogr. pp. 81-5). In 1743 he was nominated to the bishopric of St. Asaph, but was immediately transferred to Lincoln, to which he was consecrated at Lambeth on 1 April 1744. He was translated to Salisbury in November 1761, died there on 19 July 1766, and was buried in the cathedral, where a tablet erroneously gives his age as eighty-five instead of seventy-five. His library was sold in 1767. He left one daughter, married to John Taylor, chancellor of Salisbury. Of his four wives, the first was a niece of Bishop Sherlock. The famous wedding-ring ' posy,' 'If I survive I'll make them five,' is attributed to him.

Thomas seems to have been a worthy man, though weak in the disposal of patronage. His knowledge of German had commended him to George II, who liked him, and refused to quarrel with him for having dined at Cliefden with Frederick, prince of Wales. He was often confused with his namesakes of Winchester and Rochester, especially with the former, who also had held a city living, was a royal chaplain, preached well, and squinted. Thomas was also very deaf. He was a man of some humour, perhaps occasionally a practical joker (, Life, i. 15; Gent. Mag. 1783 i. 463, ii. 1008, 1784 i. 80). Thomas was the author of sermons published between 1739 and 1756. His por- trait is in the palace at Salisbury.

[Cassan's Bishops of Salisbury, iii. 313-19; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. passim; Abbey's English Church and its Bishops, ii. 75-6; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Robinson's Merchant Taylors' Register, ii. 9.]  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 (, 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