Thomas Kerrich was a clergyman, principal Cambridge University librarian (Protobibliothecarius), antiquary, draughtsman and gifted amateur artist. He created one of the first catalogue raisonné

Catalogue raisonné

The typical catalogue raisonné is a monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of artworks by an artist.The essential elements of a catalogue raisonné are that it purports to be an exhaustive list of works for a defined subject matter describing the works in a way so that they may be reliably...

s (for the works of artist Marten van Heemskerck

Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen

Maarten van Heemskerck or Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, known for his depictions of the Seven Wonders of the World.-Biography:...

).

He was born at Dersingham

Dersingham

Dersingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some north of the town of King's Lynn and north-west of the city of Norwich, opening onto the Wash....

 in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 where his father, Samuel was the vicar. After graduating B.A. from Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

 in 1771, he went on the Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

 where he encountered Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (seventh creation)

Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester , known as Coke of Norfolk, was a British politician and agricultural reformer. Born to Wenman Coke, Member of Parliament for Derby and his wife Elizabeth, Coke was educated at several schools, including Eton College, before undertaking a Grand Tour of...

. Thomas Kerrich was a Fellow of Magdalene, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries of London

The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

 from 1797.

He collected ancient Roman coins and published papers on architecture, sepulchres and coffins.

In 1816, the Leper Chapel

Leper Chapel, Cambridge

The Leper Chapel in Cambridge, also currently known as the Leper Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, lies on the east side of Cambridge, England, off Newmarket Road just after crossing over the railway line at Barnwell Junction...

in Cambridge was bought and restored by Kerrich. Kerrich gave the chapel to the University, who in turn gave it the Cambridge Preservation Society in 1951. Many art galleries have works by Kerrich in their collections.

His younger daughter, Miss Francis M. Kerrich, was married on 9 December 1828 to Reverend Charles Henry Hartshorne (1802–1865); Thomas Kerrich had died earlier that year. His son was the Rev Richard Edward Kerrich (1801–1872).