Thomas Pierce 1621/2-91

Thomas PIERCE 1621/2-91

Biographical Note

Son of John Pierce. Matriculated from Magdalen in 1638, BA 1641, fellow in 1643, MA 1644. A royalist, Pierce was ejection from his fellowship in 1648 by the parliamentary visitor. He became a tutor to Robert Spencer, son of Dorothy, countess of Sunderland, and joined their household at Althorp House in Northamptonshire. In 1656 he was presented to the rectory of Brington in Northamptonshire. An apologist for anti-Calvinist theology, Pierce became involved in numerous pamphlet wars throughout the 1650s. In 1660 he was appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to the king, canon at Canterbury and prebendary of Langford Manor in the diocese of Lincoln. He became a reader in theology at Oxford and created DD. In 1661 he was elected president of Magdalen and was appointed to the lectureship at Carfax the following year. In 1675 he was installed as dean of Salisbury.

Books

Library auctioned in Oxford, 22.6.1709 (joint sale, with that of his son Robert Pierce, prebendary of Salisbury, d.1707).

Characteristic Markings

Several of the books which Pierce gave to the Cathedral Library at Canterbury have donation inscriptions with the motto Φρόνει ἐις τὸ σωφρονεῖν.

Sources

• Alston, R. C. Inventory of sale catalogues 1676-1800. St Philip, 2010.
• Parkin, Jon. "Pierce [Peirse], Thomas (1621/2–1691), dean of Salisbury and religious controversialist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.