Francis Thynne,
GENEALOGIST,
Was descended, according to Fuller, from Thom-at-the-Inne, of Stretton in Shropshire, but born in Kent, and educated at Tunbridge School, whence he went to Oxford. There "leaving the crabbedness of logic and philosophy," he took to the studies of history and genealogy, and became one of the Officers of Arms, by the title of Blanch Lyon, and afterwards Herald of Lancaster. He was the author of treatises on Ambassadors and their functions, on Government; and assisted Holinshed in the compilation of his Chronicle. His father, William Thynne, who was Clerk of the Kitchen to Henry VIII., was the first editor of Chaucer's Works. Francis's Notes on the same author were used by Speght in his edition. life died in 1611.
[See "Wood's Athenæ Oxon." by Bliss, "Hearne's Discourses " (vol ii.), and Noble's "College of Arms."]