Sounded: a Warning to the Unfaithful,’ 1703, 12mo.
[Whiting's Cat. 1708, p. 195; Smith's Cat. ii. 747; Registers, Devonshire House.]
TOMKINS, MARTIN (d. 1755?), Arian divine, is said to have been a brother or near relative of Harding Tomkins (d. 1758), attorney and clerk of the Company of Fishmongers. He may have been connected with Abingdon, where there was a nonconformist family of his name. In 1699 Martin went to Utrecht with Nathaniel Lardner [q. v.], where they found Daniel Neal [q. v.], the author of ‘The History of the Puritans.’ After studying at the university of Utrecht for three years, the three removed to Leyden, where Tomkins matriculated on 8 Sept. 1702 (Peacock, Index of English-speaking Students at Leyden University, Index Soc. 1883). In 1707 he was appointed minister of the dissenting congregation in Church Street, Stoke Newington, but in 1718 he was obliged to resign his charge in consequence of his Arian sympathies. In the following year, to justify himself, he published ‘The Case of Mr. Martin Tomkins. Being an Account of the Proceedings of the Dissenting Congregation at Stoke Newington’ (London, 4to). He did not again settle as pastor of a congregation, but, in addition to preaching occasionally, he wrote several theological treatises. The first of these, published anonymously, was entitled ‘A Sober Appeal to a Turk or an Indian concerning the plain Sense of Scripture relating to the Trinity’ (London, 1723, 4to; 2nd ed. with additions, 1748). It was an answer to Dr. Isaac Watts's ‘Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, or Father, Son, and Spirit, Three Persons and One God, asserted and proved’ (London, 1722, 12mo). In 1732 he published, also without his name, a work which gained some reputation, entitled ‘Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Men’ (London, 4to; new ed. 1761). In 1738 appeared ‘A Calm Enquiry whether we have any Warrant from Scripture for addressing ourselves directly to the Holy Spirit’ (London, 4to). In 1738 Tomkins was settled at Hackney. It is believed he died in 1755. After his death there appeared in 1771 in the ‘Theological Repository’ (iii. 257) ‘A Letter from Mr. Tomkins to Dr. Lardner in reply to his Letter on the Logos.’ Although Lardner's letter was not published until 1759, it was written in 1730, and it appears from Tomkins's reply that Lardner had lent him the manuscript to peruse. Tomkins's criticism was answered by Caleb Fleming [q. v.] in an appendix to a ‘Discourse on Three Essential Properties of the Gospel Revelation’ (London, 1772, 8vo).
[Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 823, 999, 1014; Memoirs of Daniel Neal, prefixed to the History of the Puritans, 1822, p. xvii; editorial notice prefixed to vol. ii. of the same work, pp. iv, v; Johnson's Life of Watts, 1785, p. 53; Life of Lardner by Kippis, prefixed to his Works, ed. 1838, p. ii; Robinson's History of Stoke Newington, 1820, p. 216; Wilson's History of the Dissenting Churches, 1808, i. 89, ii. 44, 45, 539; Memoirs of the Life of William Whiston, 1749, p. 294.]
TOMKINS, PELTRO WILLIAM (1759–1840), engraver and draughtsman, was born in London in 1759 (baptised 15 Oct.). He was younger son of William Tomkins (1730?–1792), landscape-painter, by his wife Susanna Callard.
In 1763 the father gained the second premium of the Society of Arts for a landscape, and subsequently, through the patronage of Edward Walter of Stalbridge, obtained considerable employment in painting views, chiefly of scenery in the north and west of England. He imitated the manner of Claude, many of whose works, as well as those of some of the Dutch painters, he also copied. He exhibited with the Free Society of Artists from 1761 to 1764, with the Incorporated Society from 1764 to 1768, and at the Royal Academy annually from 1769 to 1790. He was elected an associate of the academy in 1771. Some of Tomkins's works were engraved in Angus's and Watts's sets of views of seats of the nobility. He died at his house in Queen Anne Street, London, on 1 Jan. 1792.
The younger son, Peltro, became one of the ablest pupils of Francesco Bartolozzi [q. v.], working entirely in the dot and stipple style, and produced many fine plates, of which the most attractive are ‘A Dressing Room à l'Anglaise,’ and ‘A Dressing Room à la Française,’ a pair after Charles Ansell; ‘English Fireside’ and ‘French Fireside,’ a pair after C. Ansell; ‘Cottage Girl shelling Peas’ and ‘Village Girl gathering Nuts,’ a pair after William Redmore Bigg; ‘Amyntor and Theodora,’ after Thomas Stothard; ‘The Vestal,’ after Reynolds; ‘Sylvia and Daphne,’ after Angelica Kauffmann; ‘Louisa,’ after James Nixon; ‘Birth of the Thames,’ after Maria Cosway; ‘Madonna della Tenda,’ after Raphael; portrait of Mrs. Siddons, after John Downman; and portrait of the Duchess of Norfolk, after L. da Heere. He was also largely employed upon the illustrations to Sharpe's ‘British Poets,’ ‘British Classics,’ and ‘British Theatre.’ Tomkins was a clever original artist, and engraved from his own
