Francis Tallents

Francis Tallents (1619–1708) was a non-conforming English Presbyterian clergyman.

Francis Tallents was of partly Huguenot ancestry. He was the eldest son of Philip Tallents, whose own father, a Frenchman, accompanied Francis Leke (MP), a Derbyshire Protestant politician and soldier, to England after saving his life.

Francis Tallents was born at Pilsley in the parish of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, in November 1619. His father dying when he was fourteen, Tallents was sent by an uncle, Francis Tallents, to the free schools at Mansfield and Newark.

Tallents studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1635, and then moved to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to become sub-tutor to the sons of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk. He graduated B.A in 1641. In 1642 he travelled abroad with his pupils, and stayed for a time at Saumur, then an important centre of Huguenot teaching, where the Academy taught a moderate and inclusive Calvinism, known as Amyraldism. He later said that the encounter with Roman Catholicism at this point in his life reinforced his Protestant beliefs. This was the time of the English Civil War, in which such a commitment could dictate allegiance. He returned to Cambridge, a Parliamentarian stronghold and graduated M.A. In 1645, after which he was chosen Fellow and tutor of Magdalene.

For some years he continued in academic life, taking a strong interest in Science and History, as well as Theology. He knew at least some of the works of Jonas Moore, Pierre Gassendi and Johannes Kepler. Through Robert Boyle he knew about the activities and ideas of the Invisible College, a circle of natural philosophers who had a universalist and utopian outlook. He was also a talented teacher. Among his students was Robert Sawyer, a future Attorney General for England and Wales.

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