Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Flanagan, Thomas
FLANAGAN, THOMAS (1814–1865), historical compiler, born in 1814, was educated at Sedgley Park School, Staffordshire, and at St. Mary's College, Oscott, where he remained as a professor, and was prefect of studies for many years. In 1851 he was appointed vice-president of Sedgley Park, and in August the same year he became the ninth president of that institution, in succession to Dr. James Brown, who, on the restoration of the catholic hierarchy by Pope Pius IX, had been advanced to the see of Shrewsbury. Flanagan was also nominated one of the original canons of the newly erected chapter of Birmingham. In July 1853 he resigned the presidentship of Sedgley Park, and returned to Oscott as prefect of studies. In 1854 he was appointed resident priest at Blackmore Park, and in 1860 he removed to St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham. He died on 21 July 1865 at Kidderminster, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health.
In addition to some controversial tracts, he wrote: 1. ‘A Manual of British and Irish History; illustrated with maps, engravings, and statistical, chronological, and genealogical tables,’ London, 1847, 12mo, 1851, 8vo. 2. ‘A Short Catechism of English History, ecclesiastical and civil, for children,’ London, 1851, 16mo. 3. ‘A History of the Church in England, from the earliest period, to the re-establishment of the Hierarchy in 1850,’ 2 vols., London, 1857, 8vo, the only work hitherto published which gives a continuous history of the Roman catholic church in England since the revolution of 1688. 4. ‘A History of the Middle Ages,’ manuscript, commenced at Sedgley Park, but never completed.
[Husenbeth's Hist. of Sedgley Park School, pp. 243, 244; Tablet, 29 July 1865, p. 468; Weekly Register, 5 Aug. 1865, p. 85; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.]