particular actions of parliament. This was followed next year by ‘Short Strictures, or Animadversions on so much of Mr. Crofton's “Fastning St. Peters Bonds” as concern the reasons of the University of Oxford concerning the Covenant’ (London, 8vo), a pamphlet which Hugh Griffith in ‘Mr. Crofton's Case soberly considered’ termed ‘frivolous, scurrillous, and invective.’ On 11 April 1665 he was admitted rector of St. Mary Aldermary, London, and about the same time was appointed chaplain to Gilbert Sheldon [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, and employed as an assistant licenser of books. In this capacity he nearly refused to license ‘Paradise Lost’ because he thought treasonable the lines:
As when the Sun, new risen,
Looks through the horizontal, misty air
Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs
(Toland, Life of Milton, 1761, p. 121). On 18 July 1667 he was appointed rector of Great Chart in Kent, and in the same year published a pamphlet entitled ‘The Inconveniences of Toleration.’ On 8 Nov. 1669 he was installed chancellor and prebendary of the see of Exeter, and on 30 Nov. 1669 was instituted rector of Lambeth, all of which preferments he held till his death, resigning his two former livings. On 2 July following he licensed ‘Paradise Regained’ and ‘Samson Agonistes,’ and in 1672 was instituted rector of Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire. In 1675 he published ‘The Modern Pleas for Comprehension, Toleration, and the taking away the Obligation to the Renouncing of the Covenant considered and discussed’ (London, 8vo); another edition appeared in 1680 entitled ‘The New Distemper, or the Dissenter's usual Pleas for Comprehension, &c., considered and discussed;’ the first edition was answered by Baxter in his ‘Apology for the Nonconformist's Ministry.’ Tomkins died at Exeter on 20 Aug. 1675, aged 36, and was buried in the chancel of Martin Hussingtree church, near Droitwich in Worcestershire. Besides writing the works mentioned, he composed some commendatory verses prefixed to Elys's ‘Dia Poemata’ (1665), and is said to have edited ‘Musica Deo Sacra et Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ’ (1668), composed by his uncle, Thomas Tomkins (d. 1656) [q. v.]
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1046; Masson's Life of Milton, vi. 506, 514, 515, 616, 651; Manning and Bray's History of Surrey, iii. 519; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 436; Hasted's History of Kent, iii. 251; Notes and Queries, III. ix. 259; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]
TOMKINS, THOMAS (1743–1816), calligrapher, born in 1743, kept for many years a writing school in Foster Lane, London. For boldness of design, inexhaustible variety, and elegant freedom, he was justly considered to have attained the highest eminence in his art. Among the productions of his pen are: A transcript of the charter granted by Charles II to the Irish Society, containing 150 folio pages; ornamental titles to many splendid editions of valuable books, particularly Macklin's Bible (8 vols. 1800–16, fol.), Thomson's ‘Seasons,’ and the Houghton Collection of Prints; a transcript of Lord Nelson's letter announcing his victory at the battle of the Nile—this was engraved and published; titles to three volumes of manuscript music presented to the king by Thomas Linley the elder [q. v.]; honorary freedoms presented to celebrated generals and admirals for their victories (1776–1816)—framed duplicates of these are preserved among the city archives; and addresses to their majesties on many public occasions, particularly from the Royal Academy, duplicates of which documents were placed in the library of the academy as choice specimens of ornamental penmanship. Tomkins was intimate with Johnson, Reynolds, and other celebrities, whom he used to astonish by the facility with which he could strike a perfect circle with the pen. He died in Sermon Lane, Doctors' Commons, in September 1816. His partner in the writing academy, John Reddall, survived till 17 Aug. 1834. Besides being the finest penman of his time, Tomkins was a most amiable man, and certainly did not deserve the ridicule which was cast upon him by Isaac D'Israeli.
He bequeathed to the city of London his portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from which there is a fine mezzotinto by Charles Turner. Another good portrait, painted by George Engleheart and engraved by Lewis Schiavonetti, is prefixed to Tomkins's ‘Rays of Genius.’
He published: 1. ‘The Beauties of Writing, exemplified in a variety of plain and ornamental penmanship. Designed to excite Emulation in this valuable Art,’ London, 1777, oblong 4to; again London, 1808–9, oblong 4to, and 1844, fol. 2. ‘Alphabets written for the improvement of youth in Round, Text, and Small Hands,’ 1779. 3. ‘Rays of Genius, collected to enlighten the rising generation,’ 2 vols., London, 1806, 12mo. 4. ‘Poems on various Subjects; selected to enforce the Practice of Virtue;
