Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Singleton, Thomas
SINGLETON, THOMAS (1783–1842), archdeacon of Northumberland, born in 1783, was the only son of Thomas Anketell Singleton, of the family of Fort Singleton in Monaghan, and lieutenant-governor of Fort Landguard in Suffolk, by his wife, daughter of Francis Grose [q. v.] the antiquary, He was educated at Eton, which he entered about 1797, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1804 and M.A. in 1826. At Eton he acquired the friendship of Hugh, earl Percy (afterwards third duke of Northumberland [q. v.]), and at Cambridge he acted as the earl's tutor. He acted as private secretary to the earl on his embassy to Paris, and while he held the office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland.
In 1812 the earl presented him to the rectory of Elsdon, and in 1826 he was appointed archdeacon of Northumberland and rector of Howick. In 1829 he became a prebendary of Worcester, and in 1830 received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dublin University. In 1837 he requested Sydney Smith [q. v.] to give his opinion on the recently appointed ecclesiastical commission, and in reply appeared the first of three remarkable letters which Sydney Smith addressed to him on the subject. Singleton died, unmarried, at Alnwick Castle on 13 March 1842.
[Gent. Mag. 1842, i. 560; Stapylton's Eton School Lists, p. 30; Grad. Cant. p. 366; Reid's Life and Times of Sydney Smith, pp. 103, 326; Cat. of Dublin Graduates, p. 518.]