Thomas Lane ca.1660-1704?

Thomas LANE c.1660-1704?

Biographical Note

Born at Glendon, Northamptonshire, son of Francis Lane of Glendon Hall. BA St John’s College, Cambridge 1678; moved to Oxford, fellow of Merton College 1679, MA 1683, DCL 1686. He was reputed to have converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1680s, and went to Ireland in 1689 as an officer in James II’s army; he was wounded at the Battle of the Boyne and spent a year in captivity in Dublin. He had returned to Merton by the end of 1691 and was practising as an advocate in the Court of Arches. He remained based at Merton and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Wardenship in 1704, after which he disappears from the record.

Lane contributed a translation of the life of Epaminonidas to the edition of the Lives of Cornelius Nepos published in Oxford in 1684, and is said by Anthony Wood to have contributed to Moses Pitt’s English Atlas (1680-84). He was also involved with the reorganisation of the Ashmolean Museum.

Books

Lane’s library was auctioned in London by Thomas Ballard in February 1710, as the second part of a sale which also included the books of Isaac Basire. The catalogue lists 1444 lots, divided into Libri juridici (302), English law and miscellaneous (313), Latin theology and miscellaneous (412), French, Italian and Spanish books (356) and 61 volumes of tracts.

Characteristic Markings

None of Lane’s books have been identified.

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Bibliothecae Laneana, 1710 (ESTC T142281).
• Martin, G. H. "Lane, Thomas (b. c. 1660, d. in or after 1704), civil lawyer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Martin, G. and J. Highfield, History of Merton College, 1997.