Thomas Haweis (c.1734–1820), (surname pronounced to rhyme with "pause") was born in Redruth, Cornwall, on 1 January 1734, where he was baptised on 20 February 1734.

He was the son of a solicitor, who was able to have him educated at Truro Grammar School, but, after his father's death, his mother was too poor to send him to university and so, after an apprenticeship, he practised for some time as an apothecary and physician.

Guided by George Conon, the master of Truro Grammar School, Haweis was introduced to the doctrines of the evangelical revival.

Sponsored by the Reverend Joseph Jane of St Mary Magdalene Parish Church in Oxford, in 1748 he entered Christ's College.

Although offered an incumbency in Philadelphia by George Whitefield, he opted instead to become rector of All Saints Church, Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, in 1764, retaining the living until his death in 1820.