Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Elmham, Thomas
ELMHAM, THOMAS (d. 1440?), historian, Benedictine monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, was probably a native of North Elmham in Norfolk, He was treasurer of his society in 1407, in which year he was arrested at the suit of one Henry Somerset for excessive seal in the discharge of his duties. His action seems, however, to have been subsequently affirmed, Before many years he had joined the Cluniac order, and was prior of Lenton in Nottinghamshire by 11 June 1414. In 1416 he was appointed vicar-general for England and Scotland, and ten years later commissary-general for all vacant benefices belonging to the Cluniac order in England, Scotland, and lreland. In the latter year he resigned his office at Lenton, a certain John Elmham receiving it in his stead. Mr. Hardwick surmises that he was still living in 1440, on the evidence of a copy of verses in which he addresses 'the glorious Doctor Master John Somersette.' According to the same editor, though Somerset was a Cambridge fellow by 1410, his reputation was not sufficiently established to warrant the use of such phraseology till about 1440.
The works ascribed to Thomas Elmham are: 1. 'Historia Monasterii Sancti Augustini Cantnariensis,' extending from the coming of St. Augustine to England down to a.d. 806, from which point, after skipping over more than 280 years, it recommences in 1087, and gives a series of charters extending to 1191. The main importance of this work (exclusive of its charters)is that it is based on the earlier chronicle, now lost, of Thomas Sprott. 2. A prose life of Henry V. 3. 'Liber Metricus de Henrico Vso,' which seems to be intended as a supplement to the previous book. The verses which serve as a proœmium to the 'Liber Metricus' form an acrostic 'Thomas Elmham Monachus,' and the concluding verses also spell the writers name with the additional letters N. L. The 'History of St, Augustine's' contains no mention of the author's name. Internal evidence, however, shows that he was a monk of the monastery in question; that he was connected with the East-Anglian counties, and probably with North Elmham itself; that he was writing probably not long after the revolt of Owen Glendower, and certainly after the death of Archbishop Arundel (20 Feb. 1414). As the chronological table prefixed to the work ends in 1418, while the last three or four years are entered in a different hand, Mr. Hardwick concludes that he probably ended his work in 1414, the very year when we know from other sources that Elmham became prior of Lenton. Other arguments in favour of both works being written by the same Thomas Elmham may be drawn from the style and also from the fact that certain verses in the final acrostic of the 'Liber Metricus' appear, in a very slightly altered form, in the 'Historia Monasterii.' Thomas Elmham's works have been edited, the 'Historia' by Hardwick (Rolls Series, 1858), 'Vita et Gesta Henrici V' by Hearne (1727), and the 'Liber Metricus' by C. A. Cole (Rolls Series, 1858).
[See the prefaces to the editions alluded to above.]