Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rudborne, Thomas (fl.1460)
RUDBORNE, THOMAS (fl. 1460), historian, was a monk of St. Swithun's, Winchester, and not, as Bale and others following him state, of the monastery of Hyde or Newminster. His date is fixed by references in his works (see Oudin, De Scriptt. Eccles. iii. cols. 2722–5). He states that he was allowed to use the records of Durham Cathedral through the courtesy of Robert Neville (1404–1457) [q. v.], who was bishop there between 1438 and 1457. He alludes to his namesake, Thomas Rudborne (d. 1442) [q. v.], the bishop of St. David's, but no relationship has been traced between them.
He was author of: 1. ‘Annales Breves Ecclesiæ Wintoniensis a Bruto ad Henricum VI regem.’ This was written in 1440, and was apparently a sketch, and not an epitome, of his larger work, the ‘Historia Major.’ It was extant in Cotton MS. Galba A. xv., of which only a few unintelligible fragments now remain. Wharton called it the ‘Historia Minor,’ and used it to fill in some of the blanks in the ‘Historia Major.’ 2. ‘Historia Major, lib. v.,’ which was completed in 1454, and printed by Wharton in his ‘Anglia Sacra,’ i. 179–286, from two manuscripts, one being Cod. 183 in Lambeth Library, and the other in Corpus Christi Library, Cambridge; neither of these manuscripts is perfect, and Wharton's edition ends with the reign of Stephen. Distinct from both of these appears to be 3. ‘Chronica Thomæ Rudborn monachi ecclesiæ Wintoniensis a Bruto ad annum 18 Henrici III’ [1234], a copy of which, in a sixteenth-century hand, is extant in Cotton MS. Nero A. xvii.; this manuscript was compiled by the author, at the request of his fellow-monks, from the works of Gildas, Beda, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Matthew Paris, Thomas Rudborn, bishop of St. David's, whose chronicle is now lost, and other writers. According to Bernard, a copy of it was No. 25 among the manuscripts of Sir Simonds D'Ewes [q. v.] Oudin also states that among the Ashmolean manuscripts was ‘Additio Chronicæ Wintoniensis per fratrem Thomam Rudborn monachum S. Swithini, scilicet, Genealogia comitum Warwicensium;’ but the only work of Rudborn's now extant in that collection is ‘Appendix e Thoma Rudborn de rege Oswio et fundatione eccl. Lichefeld’ (Black, Cat. Ashmolean MSS. p. 770). In Cotton MS. Claudius B. VII. i. is ‘Excerpta e Breviario Chronicorum Thomæ Rudborn monachi Wintoniensis de Matilda filia Malcolmi regis Scotorum.’ Rudborne's must be distinguished from the earlier ‘Annales de Wintonia,’ printed by H. R. Luard in the Rolls Series.
[Oudin gives a long disquisition on Rudborne's works in his Scriptt. Eccl. iii. cols. 2722–5; Leland's Comment. de Scriptt.; Bale, vii. 95; Pits; p. 668; Fabricius's Bibl. Latinitatis Medii Ævi, vi. 728; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 645–6; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. i. pp. xxvi–xxviii, 179–286; Cave's Scriptt. Eccl. II. ii. 161; Bernard's Cat. of MSS. passim; Cat. Cottonian MSS.; Black's Cat. Ashmolean MSS.; Hardy's Descr. Cat. of Materials; Annales de Wintonia, ed. Luard, pp. xiv, 25, and Liber de Hyda, ed. Edwards, pp. xxiv, xxvi, xxxix, xli, in Rolls Ser.; Chevalier's Répertoire; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Darling's Cyclop. of Bibl. Lit.]