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Thomas Herring

Archbishop of Canterbury

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ908726 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Herring (baptised 10 October 1693 – 23 March 1757) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747 to 1757.

Early life and education

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 Jesus College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1710, graduating B.A. 1714, M.A. 1717. Having migrated to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1714, he was a fellow of Corpus Christi from 1716 to 1723, and graduated D.D. (comitia regia) in 1728.

At Cambridge, he was an exact contemporary of Matthew Hutton, who succeeded him in turn in each of his dioceses.

Career

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 1727 he became a chaplain to King George II, in 1732 Dean of Rochester, and in 1737 he was appointed Bishop of Bangor, consecrated 15 January 1738.

Archbishop of York

On 21 April 1743 he was translated to York and appointed 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".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Thomas Herring” as archbishop of Canterbury. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Herring and Archbishop.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1693, 1757, 1747, 1710—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1693-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Thomas, Herring and Archbishop providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Thomas Herring”, the useful work is to connect “archbishop of Canterbury” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q908726. VIAF identifies the subject as 62966717. The Library of Congress control number is n85024922. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1693, 1757, 1747 and 1710.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Herring” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.