Thomas Tymme

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Thomas Tymme (also Timme) was an English clergyman, translator and writer who died in 1620. A Puritan in outlook, he supported ideas such as capital punishment for adultery and also took an interest in alchemy and early experimental science. He likely studied at Cambridge, possibly Pembroke Hall, under the guidance of Edmund Grindal.

In 1566 he became rector of St. Antholin, Budge Row, London, and in 1575 he was appointed rector of Hasketon near Woodbridge in Suffolk, while apparently holding St. Antholin until 1592 when Nicholas Felton took over. Tymme gained influential patrons for his books, including Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex; Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire; Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick; Archbishop Grindal; and lawyers Sir Edward Coke and Sir John Puckering. He died at Hasketon in April 1620 and was buried there on the 29th. He married Mary Hendy at Hasketon on 17 July 1615; she died in 1657, and they had a son named Thomas Tymme. William Tymme, possibly his brother, printed many books between 1601 and 1615.

Tymme’s first work, published in 1570, was a Latin translation titled Newes from Niniue to Englande. In 1574 he translated what is thought to be Pierre de La Place’s history of the civil wars in France, The Three Partes of Commentaries containing the whole and perfect Discourse of the Civill Warres of France under the Raignes of Henry the Second, Frances the Second, and of Charles the Ninth. Edward Grant contributed a long set of verses praising Tymme in the prefatory material. Tymme produced many translations, mainly of theological works, and in 1575 he issued a new edition of A Looking-Glasse for the Court, originally translated by Sir Francis Bryan in 1548 from an Antonio de Guevara work.