Thomas Zouch

Thomas Zouch (12 September 1737, Sandal Magna near Wakefield – 17 December 1815, Sandal Magna), was an English clergyman and antiquary, best known as a student of the works and life of Izaak Walton.

Thomas Zouch, who claimed to be related to the noble Zouche family, was a younger son of Charles Zouch (died 27 March 1754), vicar of Sandal Magna, who married, on 14 July 1719, Dorothy (died 17 March 1760), daughter of Gervase Norton of Wakefield. Henry Zouch was his elder brother.

After his father had given him some elementary classical instruction, Thomas Zouch was sent to the free grammar school of Wakefield, under John Clarke. He was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 8 July 1756, under the tutorship of Stephen Whisson, and became scholar of his college on 6 May 1757. He won a Craven scholarship in 1760, and graduated B.A. as third wrangler in 1761. Zouch proceeded M.A. in 1764, and D.D. in 1805.

Zouch remained at Cambridge until 1770. He was ordained deacon in 1761, and gained the members' prize for a Latin essay twice – in 1762 as a middle bachelor, and in 1763 as a senior bachelor. In 1762 he was elected minor fellow of his college, and became major fellow in 1764, sub-lector primus 1765–6, and lector linguæ Latinæ 1768. He was also appointed assistant tutor, at an annual salary of £60, to Thomas Postlethwaite, and in addition took private pupils, among whom was Pepper Arden, baron Alvanley. On 8 February 1768 he delivered in the college chapel a funeral oration in Latin on the death of Robert Smith, the master. The official verses on the accession of George III contained a Latin poem by him; to those on that king's marriage he contributed a Greek poem, and he supplied English verses for the sets on the birth of the Prince of Wales and the peace of Paris, which are quoted with praise in the Monthly Review (xxviii. 27–9, xxix. 43). The Greek verses in four of the university sets which bear the name of Michael Lort are said to have been composed by Zouch. He won the Seatonian prize in 1765 with a poem on the 'Crucifixion.' It was printed in that year, and included in the collections of Musæ Seatonianæ (1772 pp. 223–41, 1787 pp. 223–41, 1808 i. 183–98).

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