Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lane, Thomas
LANE, THOMAS (fl. 1695), civilian, third son of Francis Lane of Glendon, Northamptonshire, by his wife Mary, born Bernard, was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1674, graduated B.A. 1677, entered Christ Church as a commoner in the same year, and was incorporated B.A. at Oxford 10 Oct. 1678. Through ‘the endeavours of Mr. William Bernard; of Merton Coll.’ he was, after a wearisome dispute between the fellows and the warden, who claimed an absolute veto, elected and admitted probationer-fellow of that house in 1680, and graduated M.A. December 1683 and LL.D. 8 July 1688. In March 1684 his name occurs as one of the signatories of a report drawn up with a view to the better management of this Ashmolean Museum (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, xcviii n.) In January 1687 he was reported to have turned papist, and went out with Francis Taafe, third earl of Carlingford [q. v.], in the embassy despatched to Hungary to present at the coronation of Joseph I. In the following year during his tenure of office as bursar, he suddenly left Merton, with its intention of travelling and without rendering his account, carrying with him a considerable sum belonging to the college. The sub-warden followed him, and seems to have recovered the money (Broderick, Mems. of Merton, p. 296). In 1689 he commanded a troop in James II’s army in Ireland, was wounded and taken prisoner at the Boyne, and remained in confinement at Dublin until 1690. About Easter in either that or the following year he returned to Merton, and ‘esteemed that place a comfortable harbour of which before, by wo much ease sndglenty, he was weary and sick.' In 1895 he was practising as an advocate in Doctors' Comms, (com, mm ewan", p. 102), but no further mention of him can be traced.
Lane is said by Wood to have had a hand in the ‘English Atlas printed at the Theater, Oxford, for Moses Pitt,’ 1680-4 5 vols. fol. William Nicolson [q. v], afterwards archbishop of Cashel, was the chief literary director of this colossal work. Lane's name does not ages: in connection with it, but he may well have been ons of the numerous minor collaborators. He is also said to have translated into English Nepos’s ‘Life of Epaminonadas' Oxford, 1684, 8vo, in addition to which, remarks Wood, 'he hath written certain matters, but whether he’ll own them you may enquire of him.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 480; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii, 368; Bridge's Northamtonshire, ed. Whalley, ii. 65; Graduati Cantabr.]