Thomas, William (2)

an English clergyman and antiquarian, was grandson of the preceding, and was born in 1670. He was educated at Westminster school, whence he was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, June 25, 1688. Here he took his master's degree, and soon went into orders, and had the living of Exhall, in Warwickshire, given him by the interest of lord Somers. Queen Anne was well disposed towards him, but he declined preferment or attendance at court. For the education of his family he removed to Worcester in 1721, and in 1723 was presented to the rectory of St. Nicholas in that city. He died July 26,1738. Besides being skilled in the Greek and Latin languages, he also mastered the French, Italian. and Saxon. He published, Antiquitates Prioratus Majoris Malvernae (1725) an edition of Ducgdale's Warwickshire (1730): —and Survey of the Cathedral Church of Worcester (1746). He intended to have published a history of Worcestershire; and, to gather material for this, visited every church in the county. To these labors Dr. Nash owns himself greatly indebted.