graved by F. Place from a picture by G. Zoest, and this has been copied by W. Bond as an illustration to Walpole's ‘Anecdotes of Painting.’
[J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Walpole's Anecdotes (Dallaway and Wornum); Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
TOMS, PETER (d. 1777), painter, herald, and royal academician, was son of William Henry Toms, an engraver of note early in the eighteenth century, from whom John Boydell [q. v.], alderman and engraver, took lessons. Toms was a pupil of Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) [q. v.], and practised as a portrait-painter. He met, however, with little success except as a painter of drapery, in which he succeeded so well that about 1753 he was engaged by Sir Joshua Reynolds to paint draperies in his pictures. Subsequently he did similar work for Benjamin West and Francis Cotes. He had in 1746 been appointed Portcullis Pursuivant in the Heralds' College, a post which he held until his death. In 1763 he accompanied the Duke of Northumberland to Ireland as painter to the viceroy, but did not succeed in that country. In 1768 he was elected one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy, an honour due probably to his relations with Reynolds and West. After the death of Cotes, his principal employer, Toms became depressed in spirits, intemperate, and finally committed suicide on 1 Jan. 1777. He had but seldom contributed to the Royal Academy exhibitions.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Leslie and Taylor's Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds; Art Journal, 1890, p. 114; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880.]
TOMSON, LAURENCE (1539–1608), politician, author, and translator, born in Northamptonshire in 1539, was admitted a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1553, ‘and soon after became a great proficient in logic and philosophy.’ He graduated B.A. in 1559, was elected a fellow of his college, and commenced M.A. in 1564. He accompanied Sir Thomas Hoby [q. v.] on his embassy to France in 1566; and in 1569 he resigned his fellowship. Between 1575 and 1587 he represented Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in the House of Commons, and he was member for Downton in 1588–9. In 1582 he was in attendance at court at Windsor (Cal. Hatfield MSS. ii. 529). According to his epitaph he travelled in Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and France; was conversant with twelve languages; and at one period gave public lectures on the Hebrew language at Geneva. He was much employed in political affairs by Sir Francis Walsingham, after whose death he retired into private life. He died on 29 March 1608, and was buried in the chancel of the church at Chertsey, Surrey, where a black marble was erected to his memory with a curious Latin inscription which is printed by Wood.
His works are: 1. ‘An Answere to certeine Assertions and Obiections of M. Fecknam,’ London [1570], 8vo. 2. ‘Statement of Advantages to be obtained by the establishment of a Mart Town in England,’ 1572, manuscript in the Public Record Office. 3. ‘The New Testament … translated out of Greeke by T. Beza. Whereunto are adjoyned brief summaries of doctrine … by the said T. Beza: and also short expositions … taken out of the large annotations of the foresaid authour and J. Camerarius. By P. Loseler, Villerius. Englished by L. Tomson,’ London, 1576, 8vo, dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham; again 1580, 1587, 1596. Several other editions of Tomson's revision of the Genevan version of the New Testament were published in the whole Bible. 4. ‘A Treatise of the Excellencie of a Christian Man, and how he may be knowen. Written in French. … Whereunto is adioyned a briefe description of the life and death of the said authour (set forth by P. de Farnace). … Translated into English,’ London, 1576, 1577, 1585, 8vo, dedicated to Mrs. Ursula Walsingham. 5. ‘Sermons of J. Calvin on the Epistles of S. Paule to Timothie and Titus … Translated,’ London, 1579, 4to. 6. ‘Propositions taught and mayntained by Mr. R[ichard] Hooker. The same briefly confuted by L. T. in a private letter’ (Harleian MS. 291, f. 183). 7. ‘Treatise on the matters in controversy between the Merchants of the Hanze Towns and the Merchants Adventurers,’ 1590, a Latin manuscript in the Public Record Office. 8. ‘Mary, the Mother of Christ: her tears,’ London, 1596, 8vo. 9. ‘Brief Remarks on the State of the Low Countries’ (Cottonian MS., Galba D vii. f. 163).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 44; Bloxam's Magdalen College Register, iv. 138; Cal. State Papers (Dom. Eliz.); Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), pp. 991, 1057, 1077, 1200; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]
TOMSON, RICHARD (fl. 1588), mariner, may presumably be identified with the Richard Tomson of Yarmouth (July 1570; State Papers, Dom. Eliz., lxxiii. 151), nephew of John Tomson of Sherringham. The mother
