Thomas traherne biography

Thomas Traherne was born within the walls of Hereford City in about , close to All Saints Church, where he was probably baptised.

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He was about five when the Civil War came to the city. He may have been at Hereford Cathedral School in when King Charles I was beheaded. In later life he wrote of the King as martyr.

In , in the midst of the Commonwealth, he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, one of the most puritan colleges, gaining his BA in But he could find no one who would teach him felicity – happiness, which he wrote of as ‘the mistress of all other sciences’.

And so he returned to Hereford.

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In he was appointed Rector of St Mary’s Church Credenhill, 5 miles NW of Hereford, supported by Presbyterian clergy who were preachers at Hereford Cathedral. With the Restoration, and the return of King Charles II in , he sought ordination. With no Bishop of Hereford, he journeyed to Launton near Bicester to be ordained by the exiled Bishop of Oxford