FULLER. THOMAS, D.D., an eminent English historian and divine, was b. in 1608 at Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, of which parish hig father: was rector. He was educated at Queen's college, Cambridge, and greatly distinghished himself by his application study. He took the degree of A.B. in 1624, and that of A.M. in 1628. He stood so high in the estimation of his college, that, before he was 23 years of age, he was appointed to St. Benets, Cambridge, and acquired great popularity as a preacher. Soon after, he was collated to a prebend in Salisbury cathedral, and obtained a fellowship in Sidney Sussex college. His first publication was a poem,. entitled David's Heinous Sin, Hearty Repent ance, and Heavy Punishments (1631, Svo). • He was next presented to the rectory of Broad Windsor, Dorsetshire; published his History of the Holy War at Cambridge in 1639; and in 1640 removed to London, where lie was chosen lecturer at the Savoy church in the Strand, The same year, he was a member of the at West minster, and one of the select committee appointed to draw up new canons for the better government of the church. During the civil war he adhered firmly to the royal cause; and shared in its reverses. In 1646, however, lie was chosen lecturer, first, at St. Clement's lane, Lombard street, and afterwards at St. Bride's. About 1648, lie was presented to the living of Waltham, in Essex. In 1650, he published a geographical account of the Holy Land, entitled A Pisgah Sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof (folio, with maps and views), and Abel Redivivus, a collection of lives of modern divines.
In 1655, he published at London The Church. History of Britain, from the Birth of „Jesus Christ until the year 1648 (folio). In 1658, he received the living of Cranford, Middlesex. and at the restoration he was reinstated.in his prebend of Salisbury, of which he bad been deprived by the parliamentarians. He was also appointed chaplain extraordinary to the king, and created D.D. at Cambridge by royal mandamus. He died Aug. 16, 1661. His principal work, The Worthies of England, was published at London in 1662 (folio). Valuable for the information it contains on provincial history, it abounds in biographical anecdote, witty remark, and acute observation on men and manners. A new edition, with his life prefixed, appeared in 1810 (2 vols. 4to). His Holy and Profane States were republished in America in 1831. Quaint humor is one of H.'s peculiar characteristics; but his writings are no less remarkable for wisdom, imagination, and, when occasion demands, even for pathos. "Next to Shakespeare," says. Coleridge, "I am not certain whether Thomas Fuller, beyond all other writers, does not' excite in me the sense and emulation of the marvelous. . . . He was incomparably the most sensible, the least prejudiced great man, in an age that boasted of a galaxy of great men."