Cambridge, and became organist of St. Paul's. Fletcher, then in Norfolk, addressed a poem to him on the occasion. In 1625 Tomkins was sworn for the next place that should fall vacant in the chapel royal. He was appointed epistler, 3 Nov. 1626, and gospeller on 30 Jan. 1626–7. It is probable that he excelled rather as an executant than as a composer. Anthems by him exist in most manuscripts with his brother Thomas's, but they are few in number, and none have been printed. He composed a clever set of sixteen variations on ‘John, come kiss me now,’ which his brother copied in Additional MS. 29996. Joseph Butler, in his ‘Principles of Musick,’ 1636, calls Thomas and John Tomkins aureus par musicorum. Both helped in harmonising Ravenscroft's ‘Psalter,’ 1621. John died on 27 Sept. 1638, and was buried in St. Paul's, his epitaph calling him the most celebrated organist of his time. William Lawes [q. v.] composed an elegy on his death, printed by Henry Lawes [q. v.] at the end of ‘Choice Psalms,’ 1648. His youthful pupil, Albertus Bryne [q. v.], succeeded him at St. Paul's, Richard Portman at the chapel royal. His son Thomas (1637?–1675) [q. v.], chancellor and canon of Exeter Cathedral, is separately noticed.
Giles Tomkins (d. 1668?) succeeded John at King's College. He followed his brothers to court, and won the favour of Charles I, who in 1629 ordered that he should be elected to a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral, vacant by the death of John Holmes the organist, whose widow claimed it for her son. The latter was supported by the bishop and three canons, the other three and the dean voting for Tomkins. The matter was referred to a committee consisting of Archbishop Abbot, the bishops of Ely, Winchester, Norwich, and Llandaff, with the dean of St. Paul's, the poet Donne. On 22 June they reported that they had not succeeded in arranging the dispute, and in their opinion Tomkins was lawfully elected. King Charles then ordered that he should be admitted provisionally while the case was tried by law. The decision of the court of arches was apparently in favour of Holmes. In 1634 Tomkins was instructor of the boys of the cathedral, a post held by one of the seven choirmen, another being organist. In the meantime Tomkins had been appointed, on the death of Richard Dering in 1630, household musician to the king, with a pension of 40l. per annum and livery. At Laud's visitation of Salisbury Cathedral it was reported that Giles Tomkins left the choir-boys untaught when he went to attend at court. Anthony à Wood, who calls him organist of Salisbury Cathedral, says that he died there about 1668. John Blow [q. v.] succeeded him as court musician on 15 Jan. 1668–9 (The Musician, 18 Aug. 1897). Anthems by Giles Tomkins are mentioned by Clifford, and in the choir-book written by his brother and Este (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles I, vols. cxlvii. cliv. clxix. clxxxvii. dxxx.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 129).
[Thomas Tomkins's published works; Cheque-book of the Chapel Royal in Camden Society's publications, 1872, pp. 10–12, 47, 58; Wood's Fasti, col. 799, ed. Bliss, ii. 319; Rimbault's Bibliotheca Madrigaliana; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, iv. 134, 309, 763; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, c. 103; Burney's General Hist. of Music, iii. 127, 365; Tudway's Letters and Scores, in Harl. MSS. 3782, 7339; Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, i. 27, corrected in ii. 47, iii. 141, and the index; Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Peterhouse, in Ecclesiologist for August 1859; Weale's Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of 1885, p. 158; Coxe's Catalogue of the manuscripts in the Colleges at Oxford; Dickson's Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ely; Dugdale's St. Paul's, p. 101; Ouseley's contributions to Naumann's Illustrirte Geschichte der Musik, English edit. p. 743; Davey's Hist. of English Music, pp. 132, 199, 216, 234–7, 354; manuscripts and works quoted. Nathanael Tomkins, son of a gentleman of Northamptonshire, who was successively chorister, clerk, and usher of the school at Magdalen College from 1596 to 1610, has been confused with Thomas Tomkins. The mistake first appears in Wood's Fasti, col. 799. It was copied in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, in Rimbault's Cheque-book of the Chapel Royal, and in C. F. Abdy Williams's Degrees in Music. It may even be found in the first volume of Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, but was subsequently corrected.]
TOMKINS, THOMAS (1637?–1675), divine, born about 1637 in Aldersgate Street, London, was the son of John Tomkins, organist of St. Paul's, London [see under Tomkins, Thomas, d. 1656)]. Thomas was educated by his cousin, Nathanael Tomkins (d. 1681), prebendary of Worcester, and matriculated from Balliol College on 12 May 1651, graduating B.A. on 13 Feb. 1654–5, and M.A. on 6 July 1658. He was elected fellow of All Souls' in 1657, was proctor in 1663, was incorporated at Cambridge in 1664, and proceeded B.D. in 1665, and D.D. on 15 May 1673. Although Tomkins had not suffered under the Commonwealth and protectorate, on the Restoration he distinguished himself as a zealous royalist and churchman. In 1660 he published ‘The Rebel's Plea, or Mr. Baxter's Judgement concerning the late Wars’ (London, 4to), in which he criticised with considerable force Baxter's theory of the constitution, as well as his defence of
