Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thorne, William (1568?-1630)
THORNE, WILLIAM (1568?–1630), orientalist, born at Semley, Wiltshire, in 1568 or 1569, entered Winchester College in 1582. Proceeding to New College, Oxford, he matriculated on 15 April 1586, and was elected a fellow in the year following. He graduated B.A. on 12 April 1589, M.A. on 18 Jan. 1592-3, B.D. on 16 July 1600, and D.D. on 8 July 1602. On 12 March 1596-7 he was licensed to preach, and from 27 July 1598 until 1604 he filled the office of regius professor of Hebrew. On 30 Dec. 1601 he was installed dean of Chichester, and in the same year received the rectory of Tollard Royal, Wiltshire, resigning his fellowship in 1602. In 1606 he was appointed vicar of Amport, Hampshire; in 1607 a canon of Chichester and rector of Birdham, Sussex. In 1616 he became rector of North Marden, Sussex, and in 1619 of Warblington, Hampshire. He died on 13 Feb. 1629-30, and was buried in Chichester Cathedral.
Thorne was a distinguished hebraist and oriental scholar, and was held in esteem on the continent as well as in England. John Drusius dedicated to him 'his' 'Opuscula quae ad Grammaticam spectant' (1609), and Charles Fitzgeffrey [q. v.] devotes an epigram to him in his 'Affaniae sive Epigrammatum libri tres' (1601).
Thorne was the author of: 1. 'Willelmi Thorni Tullius, seu ῥήτωρ, in tria stromata divisus,' Oxford, 1592, 8vo. 2. 'Ἔσοπτρον Βασιλικόν. Or a Kenning-Glasse for a Christian King. Dedicated to James I,' London, 1603, 8vo.
[Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. iv., Hundred of Chalk, pp. 45, 177; Wood's Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 480; Pointer's Oxoniensis Academia, p. 242; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 150; Brit.Mus. Addit. MS. 24490, f. 603; Lansdowne MS. 984, f. 123.]