Thomas Ken
Born: July 1637, Little Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England.
Died: March 19, 1711, Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire, England.
Buried: Frome, Somerset, England.
Ken trained at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1662. In 1663, he became Rector of Little Easton, and Rector of Woodhay and Prebendary of Winchester in 1669. He published a Manual of Prayers, for the use of the scholars of Winchester College, in 1674. He was briefly chaplain to Princess Mary, and later to the British fleet. He became Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1685. He was one of several bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign James II’s “Declaration of Indulgence” (hoping to restore Catholicism in England); he was tried and acquitted. Ken wrote much poetry, published posthumously in 1721.
Hymns