Leaving the university in 1630, he was for a short time preacher at Worcester, but in November was instituted vicar of Leominster, Herefordshire.
[1] He left Leominster in 1643 (after February), having been appointed by Nathaniel Fiennes to supersede George Williamson as vicar of All Saints, Bristol.
On the surrender of Bristol to the royalists, 26 July, he moved to London 22 September, where he became rector of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, vacant by the sequestration of Ralph Cook, B.D.
[1] Declining to baptise infants, he was removed from St. Gabriel's early in 1645, but appointed (before May) master of the Temple, on condition of not preaching on baptism.
His fellow-townsmen chose him to the perpetual curacy of Bewdley, then a chapelry in the parish of Ribbesford; his successor at the Temple was Richard Johnson.
Baxter would engage with him only in a heated debate, which took place 1 January 1650, before a crowded audience at Bewdley chapel, and lasted from nine in the morning till five at night.
[2] In 1653, Baxter would write of the ambition of Baptists like Tombes "to baptise all the maids of Bewdly naked".
[1] At the Restoration of 1660 Tombes came up to London, and wrote in favour of the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil.
Firmly holding his special tenet, he was always a courteous disputant, and a man of exceptional capacity and attainments.