Thomas Green (bishop)

Memorial to Bishop Thomas Green in Ely Cathedral

Thomas Green (less properly Greene) (1658–1738) was an English academic and bishop.

Life

He was born in Norwich, and educated at Norwich School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1679 and became a Fellow in 1680.^[1] He was Master of Corpus from 1698 to 1710, clashing with Robert Moss, and Vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, in 1699 and 1713.

With the support of Thomas Tenison, he became chaplain to Sir Stephen Fox, and rector of Minster-in-Thanet. He was Archdeacon of Canterbury from 1708 to 1721.^[2]

A Whig in politics, he became chaplain to George I of England, and rector of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in 1716. In 1721 he became Bishop of Norwich, and in 1723 Bishop of Ely. As bishop of Ely, Green had visitatorial powers at Trinity College, Cambridge, and intervened from 1729 in the quarrel between Richard Bentley, who was the Master, and the Fellows. The matter dragged out and went to the House of Lords, only terminating in Green’s death.

He was known as a “finical” character, a taker of snuff and sometimes called “Miss Green” for his feminine face.

References

1. "Greene, Thomas (GRN674T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. 'Archdeacons: Canterbury', Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: volume 3: Canterbury, Rochester and Winchester dioceses (1974), pp. 15-17. URL: , Date accessed: 17 January 2010.

• Adaptation of Dictionary of National Biography, article Green, Thomas (1658–1738)