Thomas Larkham 1602-1669

Thomas LARKHAM 1602-1669

Biographical Note

Born at Lyme Regis, Dorset, son of Thomas Larkham, linen draper. BA Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1622, MA 1626. His wife Patience Wilton (d.1677), who he married in 1622, owned property whose income helped to sustain Larkham’s career. Curate of Sandford, Devon 1624, vicar of Northam 1626. He emigrated to New Hampshire ca.1640, but soon returned to England, where he became a parliamentary chaplain in Kent, and travelled for some years with the army. In 1651 he moved to Cockermouth, Cumberland, preaching there before returning to the west country, where the congregation he gathered in Tavistock became the focus of much controversy in the late 1650s, around Larkham’s strict discipline. He resigned as vicar of Tavistock in 1660, but remained in the area as an independent minister, and was formally excommunicated in 1665. He acquired a reputation as a “centre of disturbance” wherever he went.

Books

Larkham’s probate inventory included a library valued at £20, from a total estate of £78.

Characteristic Markings

None of Larkham’s books have been identified.

Sources

• Matthews, A. G. Calamy revised. Oxford, 1934.
• Moore, Susan Hardman. "Larkham, Thomas (1602–1669), Independent minister." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.