Thomas Lathbury

Born in Brackley, Northamptonshire, in 1798, he was educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, taking his B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827. After entering holy orders, he served a series of curacies including Chatteris, Bath, Wootton, Mangotsfield, and the Abbey Church at Bath, before being presented in 1848 to the vicarage of St. Simon's, Baptist Mills, Bristol.

He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical historian of the Church of England. His best-known works include A History of the Nonjurors, A History of the Convocation of the Church of England, and A History of the Book of Common Prayer and Other Books of Authority, all of which show his strong interest in liturgy, church government, and religious controversy.

Lathbury died in 1865. Though not a household name today, his writing remains valuable for listeners interested in Anglican history, nineteenth-century religious scholarship, and the long arguments over how the English church understood its own past.