Francis Thynne

Francis Thynne (c. 1544 – 1608) was an English antiquary and an officer of arms at the College of Arms.

Family background and early life

Francis Thynne was born in Kent, the son of William Thynne, who was Master of the Household of King Henry VIII. He attended Tonbridge School.

Career

Francis Thynne was an antiquary before being admitted to the College of Arms after several fruitless applications. He was finally appointed Blanche Lyon Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary in 1602, the first instance of this office being "extraordinary". Immediately after this appointment, he was promoted to Lancaster Herald of Arms in Ordinary.

He had an eventful life, having been imprisoned for more than two years as a debtor and crippled with gout for much of his life. He was known to have assisted William Camden in his heraldic work and was recommended by Sir William Dethick for eventual promotion to the office of Norroy King of Arms. This promotion never occurred, and Thynne died circa November 1608. His arms were those of Botfield (his family's original name) and were blazoned Barry of ten Or and Sable.

Thynne's main importance is as an antiquary who formed part of the Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries, which was active between 1586 and about 1607. They aimed to "construct a detailed and credible account of the origins and development of the English people". This club of lawyers, heralds and antiquarians largely consulted records in Latin but Thynne was remarkable for his ability to read Old English (Anglo-Saxon) sources. Archbishop Matthew Parker had initiated the searches of the libraries of dissolved monasteries, primarily to find evidence for the historical singularity of the English Church, free from Rome. However, the small circle of scholars he employed largely ceased research after his death, whilst his manuscripts disappeared into university college libraries. Apart from Henry Savile's "poorly-executed" chronicles (1598), no further Anglo-Saxon texts were published until L'Isle's Saxon Treatise (1623) and Wheelock's edition of Bede's Historiae ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum (1644). What is remarkable about Thynne is that he and only a few other antiquaries were mastering the Anglo-Saxon language. The evidence for this comes from the published volumes of the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, where references are made to charters and other documents written in Old English. In a 1591 discussion on the origins of English shires, Thynne, together with James Ley and Thomas Talbot, display reasonable knowledge of Old English.