Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Cottenham, in Cambridgeshire, on the 29th of September 1636; and studied at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. In his youth he applied himself to physic; but afterward went into orders, and was some time minister of St Andrew's church, Cambridge; where he attended the sick during the plague in 1665, which his parishioners acknowledged by the present of a piece of plate. He showed himself very active against the growth of Popery, by his writings both in King Charles's and in King James's reigns. In 1680 he was presented to the vicarage of St Martin's in the Fields, London, to which parish he made several donations. He endowed a free school, and built a handsome library, which he furnished with useful books. King William and Queen Mary, in 1689, presented him to the archdeaconry of London; in 1691, he was nominated to the see of Lincoln, and in 1694 he succeeded Dr Tillotson as archbishop of Canterbury. He performed all the duties of a good primate for twenty years, and died on the 14th of December 1715.