royal and choral services is unknown. He was buried at Martin Hussingtree, near Worcester, 9 June 1656. His wife Alicia died on 29 Jan. 1641–2, and was buried in the cathedral (Abingdon, Antiquities of Worcester, 1717, p. 77). Her funeral sermon by John Toy [q. v.] was published in quarto.
Two important collections of Thomas Tomkins's music were published. His ‘Songs of three, four, and five, and six parts’ are without date; but the mention of ‘Dr.’ Heather and the dedication to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, show that the work was printed between 1622 and 1629. Each number has also a separate dedication, one of which is to Phineas Fletcher [q. v.], the others mostly to well-known musicians. The collection includes twenty-eight fine anthems and madrigals. Long after Tomkins's death appeared a much larger collection, ‘Musica Deo Sacra et Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ; or, Musick dedicated to the Honor and Service of God, and to the Use of Cathedral and other Churches of England, especially to the Chapel Royal of King Charles the First,’ 1668. Burney inaccurately stated the date as 1664, which has caused a supposition that there were two editions. The collection contains five services and ninety-eight anthems. The organ copy has directions for counting time by the pulse and for the pitch to which organs should be tuned. Both publications are very rare. Complete copies are preserved at the Royal College of Music, and in Dean Aldrich's library at Christ Church. The British Museum has one part-book of the ‘Songs,’ and the vocal portion of ‘Musica Deo Sacra.’
Many manuscripts at the British Museum, Ely and Durham cathedrals, the Royal College of Music, Lambeth Palace, Tenbury, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, contain anthems and services by Tomkins. There are In Nomines, fantasies, and pavans in British Museum Additional MSS. 17792–6; pavans and galliards in Additional MSS. 30826–8; and five pieces for the virginals in the manuscript at the Fitzwilliam Museum, now edited. Additional MS. 29996, which was apparently begun by John Redford, and perhaps continued by Tallis and Byrd, was completed and annotated by Tomkins, who has inserted pieces of his own, and some by his brother John, also some satirical verses against the puritans. Another volume of his instrumental music was in the possession of Farrenc (Fétis, Biographie Universelle). At St. John's College, Oxford, is a choir-book partly written by him, partly by Michael Este. His works are included in ‘Divine Services and Anthems,’ a word-book published in 1663 by James Clifford of St. Paul's; and Wood says there was a manuscript volume of his sacred music at Magdalen College. The most remarkable of Tomkins's works are the anthems ‘O praise the Lord, all ye heathen,’ which is for twelve voices, and ‘Glory be to God,’ for ten voices. These and others were scored by Thomas Tudway [q. v.] from the choir-books at Ely, and he justly described them as ‘very elaborate and artful pieces, and the most deserving to be recorded and had in everlasting remembrance.’ One was scored by Purcell in a volume now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Modern editors have reprinted very few of Tomkins's works. A psalm-tune is in Turle and Taylor's ‘People's Singing Book,’ 1844. Joseph Warren, in his ‘Chorister's Handbook’ and enlarged edition of Boyce's ‘Cathedral Music,’ inserted a service in C and some anthems; and Ouseley's ‘Cathedral Music,’ 1853, contains a service in D, with a Venite. Three anthems are in Cope's collection. The preces from ‘Musica Deo Sacra,’ and preces, responses, and litanies from the choir-books at Peterhouse, Cambridge, with some chants, were published in Jebb's ‘Choral Responses and Litanies,’ 1847–57. One madrigal has been reprinted.
His son, Nathanael Tomkins (d. 1681), graduated B.D. from Balliol College, Oxford, on 31 March 1628–9. He was made prebendary of Worcester Cathedral in 1629. He had allowed some of the worn-out copes and vestments to be used as ‘players' caps and coats,’ but upon the appointment of Roger Manwaring [q. v.] as dean in 1633 all such were burned. Subsequently Nathanael Tomkins appears as one of the high-church party, siding with the dean against the bishop and townsmen (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635–1641). He was ejected from his appointment and his various benefices by the puritans, but survived to the Restoration, and died, still prebendary of the cathedral, on 21 Oct. 1681 (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 81; Foster, Alumni Oxon.)
Of the brothers of Thomas Tomkins, the most distinguished was John Tomkins (1586–1638), who in 1606 succeeded Orlando Gibbons as organist of King's College, Cambridge. Having studied music ten years, he received the degree of Mus. Bac. on 6 June 1608, on condition of composing a piece for performance at the commencement. He was to be presented in the dress of a bachelor of arts. John Tomkins was intimate with Phineas Fletcher, who has made him, under the name of Thomalin, an interlocutor in three of his eclogues. About 1619 he left
