John Thornborough

John Thornborough (1551–1641) was an English bishop.

Life


Thornborough was born in Salisbury, and graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford.

In a long ecclesiastical career, he was employed as a chaplain by the Earl of Pembroke, and Queen Elizabeth. He was Dean of York, Bishop of Limerick in 1593, Bishop of Bristol in 1603, and Bishop of Worcester from 1617. He was appointed Clerk of the Closet in 1588, serving Queen Elizabeth I in that capacity until the end of her reign in 1603.

He was tolerant of Puritans, encouraging his congregation to attend puritan lectures. He also shielded the future biographer Samuel Clarke (1599–1683).

He wrote an alchemical book, Lithotheorikos of 1621. He is known to have employed Simon Forman. Robert Fludd dedicated Anatomiae Amphitheatrum (1623) to Thornborough.