Early life

He was born at Bewdley

Bewdley

Bewdley is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England, along the Severn Valley a few miles to the west of Kidderminster...

, Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, in 1602 or 1603. He matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 23 January 1618, aged 15. His tutor there was William Pemble

William Pemble

William Pemble was an English theologian and author.-Biography:A student of Richard Capel at Magdalen College, Oxford, Pemble became reader and tutor at Magdalen...

; among his college friends was John Geree. He graduated B.A. on 12 June 1621. After Pemble's death he succeeded him in 1623 as catechism lecturer.

His reputation as a tutor was considerable; among his pupils was John Wilkins

John Wilkins

John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....

. He graduated M.A. on 16 April 1624, took orders, and quickly came into note as a preacher. From about 1624 to 1630 he was one of the lecturers of St. Martin Carfax. As early as 1627 he began to have doubts on the subject of infant baptism

Infant baptism

Infant baptism is the practice of baptising infants or young children. In theological discussions, the practice is sometimes referred to as paedobaptism or pedobaptism from the Greek pais meaning "child." The practice is sometimes contrasted with what is called "believer's baptism", or...

. Leaving the university in 1630, he was for a short time preacher at Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, but in November was instituted vicar of Leominster

Leominster

Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England, located approximately north of the city of Hereford and south of Ludlow, at...

, Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

. His preaching was popular, and he won the admiration of the high Anglican John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore

John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore

John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore , diplomat and politician, was the eldest son of Sir James Scudamore of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire....

.

Commonwealth years

He left Leominster in 1643 (after February), having been appointed by Nathaniel Fiennes

Nathaniel Fiennes

Nathaniel Fiennes was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659...

 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. In church government his views were presbyterian. He put his scruples on infant baptism to the Westminster Assembly

Westminster Assembly

The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...

, but got no satisfaction.

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. He published on this topic; for licensing one of his tracts, the parliamentary censor, John Bachiler, was attacked in the Westminster Assembly (25 December 1645) by William Gouge

William Gouge

William Gouge was an English clergyman and author. He was a minister and preacher at St Ann Blackfriars for 45 years, from 1608, and a member of the Westminster Assembly from 1643.-Life:...

; and Stephen Marshall

Stephen Marshall

Stephen Marshall was an English Nonconformist churchman.His sermons, especially that on the death of John Pym in 1643, reveal eloquence and fervour...

 was appointed to answer the tract. As preacher at the Temple, Tombes directed his polemic against antinomianism

Antinomianism

Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....

. In 1646 he had an interview with Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 and gave him his books. His fellow-townsmen chose him to the perpetual curacy of Bewdley, then a chapelry

Chapelry

A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England, and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church...

 in the parish of Ribbesford

Ribbesford

Ribbesford is a village and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. At the 2001 census it had a population of 237....

; his successor at the Temple was Richard Johnson.

At Bewdley Tombes organised a small Baptist church, which produced three Baptist preachers. He regularly attended Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...

's Thursday lecture at Kidderminster

Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...

, and tried to draw Baxter, as he had already drawn Thomas Blake

Thomas Blake (minister)

-Life:He was a native of Staffordshire, and entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1616 in his nineteenth year. He proceeded B.A. and M. A., and having obtained orders, had some minor church position. In 1648 he subscribed to the solemn league and covenant in 1648 among the ministers of...

, into a written discussion. Baxter would engage with him only in a heated debate, which took place before a crowded audience at Bewdley chapel on 1 January 1650, and lasted from nine in the morning till five at night. The occasion became rowdy, and the magistrate had to intervene. Baxter was later (1653) to write of the ambition of Baptists like Tombes "to baptise all the maids of Bewdly naked". It had the effect of causing Tombes to leave Bewdley, where he was succeeded in 1650 by Henry Oasland With Bewdley he had held for a time the rectory of Ross, Herefordshire; this he resigned on being appointed to the mastership of St. Catherine's Hospital, Ledbury

Ledbury

Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...

, Herefordshire.

After his encounter with Baxter, Tombes's debates were numerous. In July 1652 he went to Oxford to dispute on baptism with Henry Savage

Henry Savage

Henry Savage was an English clergyman, academic and controversialist, Master of Balliol College, Oxford from 1651.-Life:He was the son of Francis Savage of Dobs Hill in the parish of Eldersfield or Eldsfield, Worcestershire. He entered as a commoner of Balliol in 1621 at the age of seventeen, but...

. On the same topic he disputed at Abergavenny

Abergavenny

Abergavenny , meaning Mouth of the River Gavenny, is a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 15 miles west of Monmouth on the A40 and A465 roads, 6 miles from the English border. Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches...

, on 5 September 1653, with Henry Vaughan and John Cragge. He had not given up his claim to the vicarage of Leominster, and returned to it apparently in 1654, when he was appointed (20 March) one of Cromwell's 'triers.' Against Quakerism and popery he wrote tracts (1660), to which Baxter prefixed friendly letters.

After the Restoration

At the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of 1660 Tombes came up to London, and wrote in favour of the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil. Lord Clarendon stood his friend. He conformed in a lay capacity, resigning his preferments and declining offers of promotion. After 1661 he lived chiefly at Salisbury

Salisbury

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...

, where his second wife had property. He communicated as an Anglican. Firmly holding his special tenet, he was always a courteous disputant, and a man of exceptional capacity and attainments.

He died at Salisbury on 22 May 1676, and was buried on 25 May in St. Edmund's churchyard.