Life

He was the second son of John Talbot (d. 1551) of Salesbury

Salesbury

Salesbury is a village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley on the outskirts of Blackburn, England. This completely rural parish descends northwards to a secluded and wooded reach where the River Ribble falls over shelving rocks. The Old English name is 'Salebyry', dating from 1246 AD and...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Banaster of Altham

Altham, Lancashire

Altham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Hyndburn, in Lancashire, England. It is the only parish in the borough – the remainder is an unparished area. The village is west of Burnley, north of Accrington, and north-east of Clayton-le-Moors, and is on the A678 Blackburn to Burnley...

. Before 1580 he had become clerk of the records in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

, and may be the ‘learned’ Mr. Talbot referred to by Dr. John Dee

John Dee

John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...

. He was an original member of the Society of Antiquaries, and occurs in Francis Tate

Francis Tate

Francis Tate was an English antiquary and politician, Member of Parliament for Northampton and Shrewsbury.-Life:He was born in 1560 at Gayton, the second son of Bartholomew Tate of Delapre, Northamptonshire, by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Francis Tanfield of Gayton...

's list of members in 1590. William Camden

William Camden

William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...

wrote: ‘Not to conceal my obligations to any, I must acknowledge myself under very great ones to Thomas Talbot, a diligent examiner of records and perfect master of our antiquities’.

Works

None of Talbot's collections are known to have been published. The major ones were left in manuscript in major libraries:

• collections relating to abbeys;
• extracts from chronicles and pedigrees (including that of his own family);
• a collection of historical and constitutional antiquities;
• a collection of abstracts from ‘Inquisitiones post mortem’ relating to Yorkshire families;
• an account of the proceedings of the court of claims at the coronations of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V;
• a ‘Catalogus Archicamerariorum Angliæ’;
• collections of pedigrees;
• ‘Collectanea e Rotulis in Turri Lond. servatis’;
• notes from his genealogical collections are extant in Rawlinson MS. B. 103.

Other antiquarian collections, the authorship of which has not been determined, may be by Talbot (cf. Cat. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 26717).