John had been appointed Public Preacher by Elizabeth 1st, as St Mary's was a Royal Peculiar, and led a colourful life until his death.Thomas, along with his two brothers, was educated at the Shrewsbury School before matriculating at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1597.
[2] He remained at the college until 1610, when he moved to Wolverhampton and set up a successful legal practice.
His college called him back five years later, to prepare an entertainment of King James I. Thomas married Margaret Cresswell and together had three boys and a girl.
Tomkis represented an important break in the academic drama of the two universities: he wrote in English rather than the traditional Latin.
[3] More speculatively, Tomkis has been suggested as the possible author of two entertainments, Ruff, Cuff, and Band and Work for Cutlers (both published 1615), and the academic morality play Locus, Corpus, Motus (c.