John Tomkins (composer)

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John Tomkins (1586–27 September 1638) was a Welsh-born organist and composer, and the half-brother of Thomas Tomkins. He served as organist of St Paul’s Cathedral in London from 1619. He was born in St David’s, Pembrokeshire. His father, also named Thomas Tomkins, was a vicar choral at St David’s Cathedral and later a minor canon at Gloucester Cathedral, and John may have sung there as a chorister. In 1606 he succeeded Orlando Gibbons as organist of King’s College, Cambridge. He studied there for about ten years and earned a Bachelor of Music in June 1608 after agreeing to compose a piece for the graduation ceremony. His friend Phineas Fletcher made him the character Thomalin in three of his eclogues. After leaving Cambridge, Tomkins became organist at St Paul’s in 1619. Fletcher later wrote a poem to him when he was in Norfolk. In 1625 he became gentleman-extraordinary of the Chapel Royal and in 1627 a gentleman-in-ordinary. He died on 27 September 1638 and was buried at St Paul’s; William Lawes wrote an elegy for him. His pupil Albertus Byrne succeeded him at St Paul’s, and Richard Portman succeeded him at the Chapel Royal. His son Thomas became chancellor and canon of Exeter Cathedral. Some of his anthems are in Barnard’s manuscript collections. He wrote a set of sixteen keyboard variations on “John, come kiss me now,” which his brother Thomas copied into a British Museum manuscript.