He styles himself simply "Brother Thomas" and John Bale seems to have first given him the title "of Eccleston".
Incidentally it throws some light on the trend of early Franciscan events and thought in general.
For a period of twenty-six years, Eccleston was busy collecting material for his chronicle, which he based on personal knowledge, interviews, and documents no longer extant.
His chronicle lacks dates, is weak on chronological presentation, and gives preference to England, but is considered accurate and reliable in the content related to the Friars Minor in England.
Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., translated the work into English in 1903 under the title The Friars and How They Came to England,[1] and E. Gurney Salter rendered it in English in 1926 with the title The Coming of the Friars Minor to England and Germany.