Thomas Herring
|
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Thomas Herring |
|
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Canterbury | |
 |
|
| Installed | 1747 |
| Term ended | 1757 |
| Predecessor | John Potter |
| Successor | Matthew Hutton |
| Other posts |
Bishop of Bangor (1737–1743) Archbishop of York (1743–1747) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1693 Walsoken, Norfolk |
| Died | 23 March 1757 |
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Cambridge |
Thomas Herring PC (1693 – 23 March 1757) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747 to 1757.
He was the son of John Herring, rector of Walsoken in Norfolk, who had previously been vicar of Foxton, near Cambridge, and his wife, Martha Potts. He was educated at Wisbech Grammar School and later Jesus College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was a contemporary of Matthew Hutton, who succeeded him in turn in each of his dioceses. He received his MA in 1717 and was a fellow at Corpus Christi College from 1716 to 1723.
Herring became a close friend of Philip Yorke, the Solicitor General, who would later, as Lord Hardwicke, serve for many years as Lord Chancellor, and as such, was able to advance quickly. In 1728 he became Doctor of Divinity and a chaplain to George II, and in 1737 he was appointed Bishop of Bangor.
In 1743 he became Archbishop of York. On 23 September 1745, during the Jacobite rising, Herring gave a rousing sermon which, as Paul Langford notes, "captured the patriotic imagination as nothing previously had. It was to remain long in the collective mind of patriotic Protestantism". At a speech at York Castle on 24 September, Herring said:
...these Commotions in the North are but Part of a Great Plan concerted for our Ruin—They have begun under the Countenance, and will be supported by the Forces of France and Spain, our old and inveterate, (and late Experience calls upon me to add, our savage and blood-thirsty) Enemies—A Circumstance that should fire the Indignation of every honest Englishman. If these Designs should succeed, and Popery and Arbitrary Power come in upon us, under the Influence and Direction of these two Tyrannical and Corrupted Courts, I leave you to reflect, what would become of every Thing that is valuable to us! We are now bless'd with the mild Administration of a Just and Protestant King, who is of so strict an Adherence to the Laws of our Country, that not an Instance can be pointed out, during his whole reign, wherein he made the least Attempt upon the Liberty, or Property, or Religion, of a single Person. But if the Ambition and Pride of France and Spain, is to dictate to us, we must submit to a Man to govern us under their hated and accursed Influence, who brings his Religion from Rome, and Rules and Maxims of his Government from Paris and Madrid.
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