‘printed, with many things expunged since his death’ (Wood), ‘A Pastoral Letter on the Catechising of Children’ (1689, London, 4to), and an incomplete work entitled ‘Roman Oracles Silenced’ (London, 1691, 4to), being a reply to the Romanist arguments advanced in Henry Turberville's ‘Manual of Controversies.’ Numerous letters from him to Sancroft and others are preserved in the Bodleian Library (see Hackman, Catalogue, s.v. ‘Thomas’).
[There is a detailed memoir of Thomas in Nash's Worcestershire (vol. ii. App. pp. 158–63), the materials for it having been communicated to the author by George Wingfield of Lippard, near Worcester, who was a grandson of William Thomas (1670–1738) [q. v.] the antiquary. Information as to the bishop's pedigree was kindly communicated by Alcwyn C. Evans, esq. of Carmarthen. See also Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 262, and Fasti Oxon. ii. 240; Willis's Survey of St. David's, pp. 133–5, 149, and Survey of the Cathedrals, ii. 654, 660; Thomas's Survey of Worcester (1736), pp. 73–5, 106 (where a drawing of the bishop's monument, with the inscription thereon, as well as the inscriptions in memory of his wife and some members of his family, is given); Valentine Green's Hist. and Antiq. of Worcester, i. 212, ii. 103; Burnet's Hist. of his own Times, ed. 1823, iv. 10; Spurrell's Hist. of Carmarthen, pp. 63, 179; Curtis's Hist. of Laugharne, 2nd ed. pp. 100–1; Jackson's Curiosities of the Pulpit, p. 181; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 489; Chalmers's General Biographical Dict. xxix. 286; Lansdowne MSS. (Brit. Mus.) No. 987, ff. 113–15; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
THOMAS, WILLIAM, D.D. (1670–1738), antiquary, was grandson of William Thomas (1613–1689) [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, being the only child of John Thomas by his wife Mary, whose father, William Bagnal, assisted in the escape of Charles II after the battle of Worcester. William was admitted to Westminster school in 1685, and thence was elected on 25 June 1688 to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1691. He graduated B.A. in 1691, M.A. in 1695, B.D. in 1723, and D.D. in 1729. In 1700 he travelled in France and Italy, where he formed a close friendship with Sir John Pakington (1671–1727) [q. v.] Afterwards he obtained the living of Exhall, Warwickshire, through the interest of Lord Somers, to whom he was distantly related. He had a considerable estate at Atherstone in the same county, and another at the Grange, near Toddington, Gloucestershire. He removed to Worcester for the education of his numerous children in 1721, and in 1723 he was presented by John Hough [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, to the rectory of St. Nicholas in that city. With a view to the publication of a history of Worcestershire he transcribed many documents, besides visiting every church in the county, and his collections were of great service to Nash, who acknowledges his obligations to them. His industry was amazing, and he hardly allowed himself time for sleep, meals, and amusement. He died on 26 July 1738, and was buried in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of George Carter, esquire, of Brill, Buckinghamshire.
His works are: 1. ‘Antiquitates Prioratus Majoris Malverne in agro Wicciensi, cum Chartis originalibus easdem illustrantibus, ex Registris Sedis Episcopalis Wigornensis,’ London, 1725, 8vo. 2. ‘A Survey of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, with an account of the Bishops thereof from the foundation of the see to the year 1660 [a mistake for 1610], also an appendix of many original papers and records, never before printed,’ London 1736, 4to; also with a new title-page, dated 1737. Thomas is best known as the editor of the second edition, ‘revised, augmented, and continued,’ of Sir William Dugdale's ‘Antiquities of Warwickshire,’ 2 vols. London, 1730, fol. His ‘Index of Places to Dugdale's “Warwickshire,” 2nd edit.’ fol., was privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillips at Middle Hill about 1844. Thomas contributed verses to the collection published by the University of Cambridge on the birth of the Prince of Wales, 1688.
In Nash's ‘Worcestershire’ (i. 177) there is a portrait of Thomas engraved in mezzotint by Valentine Green.
[Bromley's Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, p. 281; Cooke's Preacher's Assistant, ii. 337; Gough's British Topography, ii. 299, 385, 388, 391; Historical Register, vol. xxiii. Chron. Diary, p. 29; Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, i. 114; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. ii. App. p. clxii; Upcott's English Topography, iii. 1259, 1342, 1346; Welch's Alumni Westmon. (Phillimore), pp. 210, 212.]
THOMAS, WILLIAM (fl. 1780–1794), architect, was from 1780 to 1794 an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Arts. He practised as an architect, chiefly, if not solely, in London. In 1783 he published ‘Original Designs in Architecture’ (London, fol.), with twenty-seven plates, comprising villas, temples, grottoes, and tombs. Between 1786 and 1788 he designed Willersley Castle, Derbyshire, for Richard Arkwright. He was a member of the Artists' Club. The date of his death is unknown.
[Dict. of Architecture, 1887.]
