Thomas Francis Knox

Father Francis Knox (born as Thomas Francis Knox; 24 December 1822 – 20 March 1882, London

Knox, whose profile in the Dictionary of New Ulster Biography claims he was born in County Armagh, not Brussels, was an Anglo-Irish ultramontane Roman Catholic priest and author, known for his historical writings and translations.

Life

Knox was the eldest son in a family connected to the Protestant Irish peerage: his father John Henry Knox, Tory MP for Newry, was a younger son of Thomas Knox, 1st Earl of Ranfurly. His mother was Mabella Josephine Needham, daughter of Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey.

He was educated at a Hampshire private school and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1845.

He became a Roman Catholic convert, in 1845 under the influence of Frederick William Faber. Encouraged to travel for two years by his concerned father, Knox hoped to see Mexico but was lucky to survive a shipwreck off Yucatán. Continuing to the United States, he decided to prepare for ordination in France. Invited to Rome for papal instruction by John Henry Newman in 1847, Knox proceeded as an Oratorian novice, taking Francis as his name in religion, as Father Francis Knox, with half a dozen priests. The rest of his life centred on the Oratorian group in England.

Thomas Francis

Thomas Francis may refer to:

See also

Thomas Francis (cricketer)

Thomas Egerton Seymour Francis (21 November 1902 – 24 February 1969) played first-class cricket for Somerset, Cambridge University and Eastern Province between 1921 and 1928. He also played four rugby union international matches for England in 1925/26. He was born at Uitenhage, Cape Province, South Africa and died at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).

Educated at Tonbridge School, Francis was a right-handed opening or middle-order batsman as a cricketer and a stand-off half or centre three-quarter as a rugby player. He first played cricket for Somerset in 1921, the year he left school, making 36 in his third match against Leicestershire, but otherwise making little impact. He reappeared in two games in the 1922 season, with similar results.

In autumn 1922 Francis went to Cambridge University and won the first of four blues for rugby union that winter, playing in The Varsity Match against Oxford University as stand-off half in partnership with the scrum-half Arthur Young; the partnership was maintained across the next two seasons and Francis won a fourth blue as a centre in 1925. Young was capped by England in 1924 and Francis joined him in the England team for four internationals in the 1925/26 season.

Thomas Francis (16th-century physician)

Thomas Francis M.D. (died 1574) was an English academic and physician, Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford and President of the London College of Physicians.

Life

A native of Chester, Francis was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was admitted B.A. 19 June 1540, and M.A. 7 July 1544. According to Anthony Wood, he was acting as deputy to John Warner, the first Regius Professor of Physic at Oxford, by 1551, having had backing from Walter Wright to switch in 1550 from an unpromising theological career. He received the degree of M.B. and license to practise 9 March 1555, and commenced M.D. the following 29 July. At the beginning of 1555 he succeeded Warner in the regius professorship, which he resigned in 1561 to become Provost of The Queen's College. The Lewis Evans who graduated B.A. at Christ Church in 1554, a tutorial pupil of Francis, has been tentatively identified as Lewis Evans the Catholic controversialist of the later 1560s.

The appointment of Francis was not a popular one, and disturbances took place at his inauguration. He retired from the provostship in 1563. He was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians, 21 October 1560, at the comitia specially convened for that purpose. He was censor in 1561 and the three following years. He was provisionally named elect 30 September 1562 in place of John Clement who had gone into exile, and was definitely appointed to the post 12 May 1564. He was President of the college in 1568, and consiliarius in 1571.