Thomas Fuller

1608-1661. Divine and historian. Son of the rector of Aldwincle St. Peters in Northamptonshire, and nephew of Bishop Davenant, he studied at Queens' College, Cambridge. Through his uncle's help he had access to good livings at Broadwinter, Waltham Abbey, and Cranford. As a preacher he was very popular in the 1630s and 1640s. During the Civil War he spent most of his time at Oxford, although he was only a moderate Royalist. His fame rests on his books. In 1650 he published A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, in 1655 A Church History of Britain. A year after his death his Worthies of England was published. Into these three books went years of research, and they have often been reprinted. A less famous and more popular work was his The Holy and Profane State (1642), a book on the Christian life. He is reputed to have been one of the first authors to make an income by his pen.