THOMAS**, an eminent historical and biographical writer, was born in London in 1705. His parents were both of them quakers; and his father, Joseph Birch, was a coffee-mill maker by trade. Thomas, having been put to school, proved indefatigable in his application, and stole many hours from sleep to increase his stock of knowledge. By this unremitting diligence, though he had not the happiness of a university education, he soon, to the surprise of his acquaintance, became qualified to take holy orders in the church of England. In 1728 he married the daughter of the Reverend Mr Cox, to whom he was curate; but his happiness was of short duration, Mrs Birch dying of puerperal fever in less than twelve months after their marriage,—an event which he deplores in a very elegant and pathetic poem, preserved in Nichols's Collection. In 1732 he was recommended to the friendship and favour of the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, then attorney-general, to whom, and to the succeeding Earl of Hardwicke, he was indebted for all his preferments. The first proof he experienced of his patron's regard was the living of Ulting in the county of Essex, in the gift of the crown, to which he was presented in 1732. In 1734 he was appointed one of the domestic chaplains to the unfortunate Earl of Kilmarnock, who was beheaded in 1746. Mr Birch was chosen a member of the Royal Society in February 1734–5, and of the Society of Antiquaries in December 1735; and he afterwards became director of the latter, an office which he held till his death. Before this, the Marischal College of Aberdeen had conferred on him, by diploma, the degree of master of arts. In 1743, through the interest of Lord Hardwicke, he was presented by the crown to the sinecure rectory of Landewy Welfrey, in the county of Pembroke; and in 1743–4 he was preferred, in the same manner, to the rectory of Sidington in St Peter's, in the county and diocese of Gloucester. There is no evidence of his having taken possession of this living; and indeed it is probable that he quitted it immediately for one more suitable to his inclinations and to his literary engagements, which required his almost constant residence in town; for, on the 24th of February 1743–4, he was instituted to the united rectories of St Michael Woodstreet and St Mary Staining, and in 1745–6 to the united rectories of St Margaret Pattens and St Gabriel, Fenchurch-street, by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, to whose turn it had fallen to present to these livings. In January 1752 he was elected one of the secretaries of the Royal Society, in the room of Dr Cromwell Mortimer, deceased. In January 1753 the Marischal College of Aberdeen created him doctor of divinity; and in that year the same degree was conferred on him by Archbishop Herring. He was one of the trustees of the British Museum, for which honour he was probably indebted to the Earl of Hardwicke, as he also was for his last preferment, the rectory of Dedden in Essex, to which he was inducted in February 1761. In the latter part of his life he was chaplain to the Princess Amelia. In 1765 he resigned his office of secretary to the Royal Society, and was succeeded by Dr Morton. His health declining about this time, he was ordered to ride for the recovery of it; but being a bad horseman, and going out in January 1766, he was unfortunately thrown from his saddle on the road between London and Hampstead, and died on the spot, in the sixty-first year of his age, and to the great regret of his numerous literary friends. He was buried in St Margaret Pattens. Dr Birch had in his lifetime been very generous to his relations; and none that were nearly allied to him being living at the period of his decease, he bequeathed his library of books and manuscripts, with his picture, painted in 1735, and all his other pictures and prints not otherwise disposed of by his will, to the British Museum. He likewise left the remainder of his fortune, which amounted to not much more than L500, to be laid out in government securities, for the purpose of applying the interest to increase the stipend of the three assistant librarians; thus manifesting at his death, as he had done during his whole life, his respect for literature, and his desire to promote useful knowledge. His principal publications were, 1. The General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, including a new translation of Mr Bayle, and interspersed with several thousand new lives. Dr Birch's associates in this undertaking were the Reverend John Peter Bernard, Mr John Lockman, and Mr George Sale; and the whole was completed in ten volumes folio. 2. Dr Cudworth's Intellectual System, improved from the Latin edition of Mosheim; his Discourse on the true Notion of the Lord's Supper; and two Sermons, with an account of his Life and Writings, 2 vols. 4to, 1743. 3. The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle, 1744, prefixed to an edition of that excellent philosopher's works, revised by Dr Birch. 4. The Lives of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, annexed to the engravings of Houbraken and Vertue, 1747–1752. 5. An Inquiry into the Share which King Charles I. had in the Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, 1747, 8vo. 6. An edition of Spenser's Faery Queen, 1751, 3 vols. 4to, with prints from designs by Kent. 7. The Miscellaneous Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, to which was prefixed the Life of that great, unfortunate, and injured man, 1751, 2 vols. 8vo. 8. The Theological, Moral, Dramatic, and Poetical Works of Mrs Catharine Cockburn, with an Account of the Life of that very ingenious Lady, 1751, 2 vols. 8vo. 9. The Life of the Most Reverend Dr John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, compiled chiefly from his original Papers and Letters; 1762, 8vo. 10. Milton's Prose Works, 1753, 2 vols. 4to, with a new life of that great poet and writer. 11. Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from the year 1581 till her death, in which the secret intrigues of her court, and the conduct of her favourite Robert Earl of Essex, both at home and abroad, are particularly illustrated; from the original papers of his intimate friend Anthony Bacon, Esq., and other manuscripts never before published; 1754, 2 vols. 4to. 12. The History of the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, from its first rise; in which the most considerable of those papers communicated to the Society, and not hitherto published, are inserted in their proper order as a supplement to the Philosophical Transactions, 1756 and 1757, 4 vols. 4to. 13. The Life of Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James I., compiled chiefly from his own papers and other manuscripts never before published, 1760, 8vo. His numerous communications to the Royal Society may be seen in the Philosophical... Transactions; and his poetical talents may be judged of from the verses already mentioned.