Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blague, Thomas

​BLAGUE or BLAGE, THOMAS (d. 1611), dean of Rochester, was of Queens' College, Cambridge. He was undoubtedly the author in early life of 'A Schoole of wise Conceytes. Wherein as euery conceyte hath wit, so the most haue much mirth, set forth in common places by order of the alphabet. Translated out of diuers Greeke and Latin wryters by Thomas Blage, student of the Queenes Colledge in Cambridge. Printed at London by Henrie Binneman. Anno 1572. Cvm Privilegio ' (12mo). He was admitted, 9 Sept. 1570, to the rectory of Braxted Magna in Essex. Local inquiries prove that he was non-resident. On 2 Sept. 1571, being A.B., he was presented to the church of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London. Again, on 20 July 1580, he is found 'presented by the queen' to Ewelme, Oxfordshire, which he resigned in 1596. On 2 April 1582, at Oxford, being described as 'student in divinity' and one of the chaplains in ordinary to the queen he 'supplicated for D.D., but whether admitted appears not' (Wood, Fasti, i. 222). On 1 Feb. 1591, being then D.D., he was installed dean of Rochester in the place of John Coldwell, M.D. Wood erroneously states that at the time he was master of Clare Hall, confounding him with another dean of Rochester (Dr. Scott). In 1602 he, as dean, presented John Wallis (or Wallys), father of the more famous Dr. John Wallis, to the living of Ashford, Kent. In 1603 he printed and published a sermon on I Psalm i. 1-2, which had been preached at the Charter House. In 1604 he was appointed rector of Bangor, but never resided. He died 11 Oct. 1611. Wood, in recording the above solitary sermon, adds, 'and perhaps others;' but all appear to have perished. He had a son named John, who, in his father's lifetime, was a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford (Fasti, i. 222). Later a Colonel John Blague was the person by whom Isaac Walton restored to Charles II his 'George' that had been lost. Another Thomas Blague—perhaps another son—wrote the following tractate: 'A great Fight at Market Harborough in Leicestershire betwixt the Presbyterians and Independents, some declaring for his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, others for the late elected Generals Maine and Poynts. With the number that were slain and wounded, and the manner how the Presbyterians were put to flight. By Thomas Blague,' 1647 ​(4to). He casually names a 'cosen Blague the surgeon' as 'attending on the wounded.'

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