Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mallory, Thomas
MALLORY or MALLORIE, THOMAS (1605?–1666?), divine, was the fourth son of Thomas Mallory, dean of Chester, rector of Mobberly and Davenham, Cheshire, and was baptised at Davenham 29 Aug. 1605. He matriculated at New College, Oxford, on 15 Oct. 1624, and proceeded B.A. on 7 May 1628, M.A. on 17 Jan. 1631–2 (Foster, Alumni, iii. 963). Appointed rector of Easington, Oxfordshire, in 1632, he was, on 14 May 1634, presented by Richard Mallory and William Forster, D.D., bishop of Sodor and Man, to the family living of Northenden, Cheshire. Although he took possession on 28 Feb. 1635, there seems to have been a dispute about the validity of his title, and on 6 Aug. 1635 he was again presented by the king (Earwaker, Cheshire, i. 295). On the outbreak of the civil war, he was ejected from his living as a loyalist, and forced to escape from his rectory, which was sequestrated with his other estates (Harl. MS. 2130, ff. 134, 209, &c.; Earwaker, i. 24, 27). His wife and six young children seem to have remained in his rectory, and to have had sums of money granted them in his absence (Church Accounts in Earwaker, i. 295; also Harl. MS. 2130, f. 47). He himself was one of the small band of royalists garrisoned in Robert Tatton's mansion of Wythenshaw, near Northenden (Earwaker, i. 315). After more than a year's siege, Tatton surrendered to Colonel Duckenfield, assisted by some of Fairfax's men, on 25 Feb. 1643 (see Providence Improved, or Burghall's Journal of the Civil War in Cheshire, Addit. MS. 5851, f. 126). Mallory was probably imprisoned. On 22 and 23 June 1660 he petitioned parliament to secure the tithes and other profits of his sequestrated living until the title should be determined (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. pt. i. p. 107).
After the Restoration, on 30 July 1660, Mallory was made canon of Chester, and created D.D. on 1 Dec. 1660. The date and place of his death are uncertain, but his successor, John Cooke, was appointed 17 March 1667–8. Mallory married twice: first, Jane, who died on 12 Feb. 1638 (registers), and secondly, Mary. A son, Francis, was legatee under the will of William Forster, bishop of Sodor and Man. A daughter, Elizabeth, was buried at Northenden, 12 June 1665.
The royalist must be distinguished from Thomas Mallory or Mallery (fl. 1662), ejected minister, who was at one time rector of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. In 1644 he was appointed vicar of St. Nicholas, Deptford. Evelyn, the diarist, who lived in the neighbourhood, at Sayes Court, describes him as a ‘quiet presbyter.’ In 1659 he accepted a lectureship at St. Michael's, Crooked Lane. Evelyn wrote in his ‘Diary,’ under date of 17 Jan. 1659, ‘Our old vicar preached, taking leave of the parish in a pathetical speech to go to a living in the city.’ He was one of the twenty-four independents who affixed their names to the Renunciation and Declaration of the Congregational Churches issued after the Fifth-monarchy insurrection (January 1661). Mallery was ejected from St. Michael's by the Act of Uniformity, 1662. Calamy describes him as ‘exemplary in his conversation and faithful in his ministry.’ He wrote: 1. ‘Sermons on Romans viii. 38–9.’ 2. ‘A Sermon,’ No. 17 in ‘The Morning Exercises,’ entitled ‘On Suitable Conceptions of God in Duty,’ 4th ed. 1677; and with Joseph Greenhill [q. v.] and Joseph Caryl [q. v.], the commentators, wrote a preface for Samuel Malbon's ‘Discourse on Life and Death,’ 1713.
[For the royalist, see authorities quoted above; Catalogue of Proceedings for Compounding, &c., i. 123; Le Neve's Fasti, iii. 271; Registers of Davenham, per the Rev. T. W. H. France-Hayhurst. For the nonconformist, see Dunn's Seventy-five Divines, p. 51; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, i. 167, ii. 326; Hasted's Kent, i. 14; Calamy's Life of Baxter, p. 286; Dews's Hist. of Deptford, pp. 69–70; Evelyn's Diary, ed. 1859, i. 349.]