Tenison, Thomas (1636-09-29 - 1715-12-14)

Thomas Tenison was born at Cottenham, Cambs. on 29 September 1636 to John Tenison, curate, and his wife Mercy. Tenison was educated at Norwich School before entering Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1653 as a Parker scholar. He graduated B.A. in 1657 and briefly studied physick, as Anglican ordinations were still forbidden; however, in 1659 he was secretly ordained by the bishop of Salisbury. He proceeded M.A. in 1660, became a fellow of Corpus in 1662, proceeded B.D. in 1667, and was created D.D. in 1680. He served as rector of Bracon Ash, Norfolk from 1661-2 and as vicar of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge from 1662-7. In 1667 he married Anne Love and became rector of Holywell with Needingworth, Hunts., and soon after was made chaplain to the king. In 1673 he became upper minister at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, a position he held for 18 months. He was promoted to the living of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London in 1680, where he joined a circle of eminent London churchmen. When the parish was divided in the 1680s, he maintained St Martin’s and also held St. James-in-the-Fields (St James, Piccadilly). In 1684 he built the first public library in London, and founded several charity schools over his lifetime. He was appointed archdeacon of London in 1689, and was consecrated as bishop of Lincoln in 1692. In 1694, Tenison was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. He revived the archbishop’s court in 1695 and was a campaigner for moral reform. A fervent pamphleteer for the Anglican cause who spoke out against Catholics and Jesuits, Tenison enjoyed the support of William and Mary, and lost a degree of political influence after their deaths. He encouraged Thomas Bray in the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1701), which aimed to win American dissenting colonists back to the Church and also to convert indigenous peoples. Tenison died on 14 December 1715 and was buried in the chancel of Lambeth parish church; he was predeceased by his wife, and a had no surviving children.