A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tomkins
TOMKINS. A family which, in the 16th and 17th centuries, produced many good musicians.
Rev. Thomas Tomkins was chanter and minor canon of Gloucester Cathedral in the latter part of the 16th century. He contributed to 'The Triumphes of Oriana,' 1600, the madrigal 'The faunes and satirs tripping,' commonly attributed to his more celebrated son and namesake.
John Tomkins, Mus. Bac., one of his sons, was probably a chorister of Gloucester Cathedral. He afterwards became a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, of which in 1606 he was appointed organist. He resigned in 1622 upon being chosen organist of St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1625 he was appointed gentleman extraordinary of the Chapel Royal 'for the next place of an organist there,' and in 1625 became Gospeller. He died Sept. 27, 1638, and was buried at St. Paul's. Some anthems by him are contained in Barnard's MS. collection. His son, Robert, was in 1641 one of the King's musicians.
Thomas Tomkins, Mus. Bac., another son of Thomas, was a pupil of Byrd, and graduated at Oxford, July 11, 1607. He soon afterwards became organist of Worcester Cathedral. On Aug. 2, 1621, he was sworn in as one of the organists of the Chapel Royal upon the death of Edmond Hooper. In 1622 he published 'Songs of 3, 4, 5 and 6 parts,' containing 28 madrigals and anthems of a high degree of excellence. He died in June, 1656, and was buried at Martin Hassingtree, Worcestershire. A collection of his church music, comprising 5 services and 68 anthems, was published in 1664 under the title of 'Musica Deo Sacra & Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ; or, Musick dedicated to the Honor and Service of God, and to the Use of Cathedral and other Churches of England, especially to the Chappel Royal of King Charles the First.' A second impression appeared in 1668.
Many MSS. of his music are found in the Tudway collection, at Ely, Ch. Ch. Oxford, etc. At St. John's Coll. Oxford, there is a volume written by him and Este, containing, among other remarkable things, the bass part of a Service by Tallis for 5 voices, otherwise unknown. [See Tallis, vol. iv. p. 54a.]
Giles Tomkins, a third son, succeeded his brother, John, as organist of King's College, Cambridge, in 1622. He afterwards became organist of Salisbury Cathedral, which appointment he held at the time of his death in 1668.
Nathaniel Tomkins, born 1584, son of a gentleman of Northampton, chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1596 to 1604, clerk there from 1604 to 1606, and usher of the College School from 1606 to 1610, and Abraham Tomkins, chorister of the same College from 1611 to 1617, were probably members of another branch of the same family.W. H. H. ]