Thomas Manton

Thomas Manton (1620–1677) was an English Puritan clergyman. He was a clerk to the Westminster Assembly and a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell.

Thomas Manton was baptized March 31, 1620 at Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset, a remote southwestern portion of England. His grammar school education was possibly at Blundell's School, in Tiverton, Devon. His formal education came at Wadham College, University of Oxford, and he eventually graduated BA in 1639 from Hart Hall. Joseph Hall, bishop of Norwich, ordained him deacon the following year: he never took priest's orders, holding that he was properly ordained to the ministerial office.

He was then appointed town lecturer of Sowton in Devon, where he served from 1640–1643, and at Colyton, Devon, from 1643-1645.

In July 1645 he moved from the rural western counties to the London area, as Colonel Alexander Popham, the patron of St. Mary’s parish, brought him east to the tiny town of Stoke Newington, in Middlesex county, outside London proper. Here he began his major mid-week lectures, first on Isaiah 53 (mid-1640s), then on James (end of the 1640s), and finally on Jude (late 1640s–early 1650s). While at Stoke Newington he was invited to preach before Parliament for the first of at least six occasions on June 30, 1647, which was a fast day for Parliament. His sermon was based on Zechariah 14:9 and entitled, “Meat out of the Eater; or, Hopes of Unity in and by Divided and Distracted Times.” Exactly one year later, on June 30, 1648, he preached another fast sermon on Revelation 3:20, “England’s Spiritual Languishing; with the Causes and the Cure.” He also participated in the Westminster Assembly as one of three clerks, was later appointed to write a preface to the second edition of the Westminster Confession in 1658, and served Oliver Cromwell as a chaplain and a trier (an overseeing body that examined men for the ministry).

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