Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, memorable for his attachment to civil and religious liberty, was the son of a clergyman, and born in the year 1693. He received his grammar-school education at Wisbech, in the isle of Ely; and at the age of seventeen was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, at which place he was made bachelor of arts in 1714, and had the degree of master of arts conferred upon him about three years afterwards. In the year 1722, he was appointed chaplain to Dr Fleetwood, bishop of Ely, who gave him two rectories; and in 1726 he was nominated preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn. He was chosen chaplain in ordinary to his Herrnhuth majesty about the same period, and obtained from Cambridge the degree of doctor of divinity in the year 1728. Herschel Bishop Fleetwood, his patron, declared to his friends that he never heard a sermon from Dr Herring which he would not have been proud to be the author of himself. In 1731, he was chosen rector of Blechingley in Surrey; the same year he was appointed dean of Rochester; and in the year 1737 the king promoted him to the see of Bangor. In 1743 he was elevated to the archiepiscopal see of York; and it was peculiarly fortunate for the country at such a critical juncture, that a man of his principles and public spirit was raised to so exalted a rank. The rebellion in Scotland had been so artfully concealed by its friends in England, that it was scarcely believed the Highlanders were in arms until the royalists were defeated at the battle of Gladsmuir. Amidst the universal consternation which this event occasioned, Archbishop Herring roused the people to a sense of their danger, contributed to assuage the panic, and encouraged them to unite with firmness and vigour in the defence of their country.

A meeting of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, was held at York, where the archbishop addressed them in a very able and animated speech, requesting them to unite as one man in averting the present danger, to preserve their happy constitution, and to contribute by a subscription to raise troops for the defence of the country. The whole assembly entered warmly into his views, and immediately subscribed about £40,000 for the important purpose recommended by his grace. On the death of Archbishop Potter, which happened in 1747, Dr Herring was translated to the see of Canterbury. In 1753 he was seized with a violent fever, which brought him to the verge of the grave; and although he so far recovered that he languished a few years, yet his strength and spirits were much exhausted, and he expired in 1756, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was buried, according to his own desire, without any pomp or parade, and no monument was erected to his memory.