Thomas Rundle

Bishop Thomas Rundle monument at St Peter's Church, Dublin taken from The Gentleman's Magazine in 1789. Thomas Rundle (c.1688–1743) was an English cleric suspected of unorthodox views. He became Anglican bishop of Derry not long after a high-profile controversy had prevented his becoming bishop of Gloucester in 1733.

Early life He was born at Milton Abbot, Devon in 1688, son of Thomas Rundle, an Exeter clergyman. After Exeter grammar school under John Reynolds, he matriculated as a commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, on 5 April 1704, at the age of 16. He took the degree of B.C.L. in 1710.

In 1712, Rundle made the acquaintance of William Whiston, in Oxford for patristic study and to find support for his Society for Promoting Primitive Christianity. Rundle and his tutor Thomas Rennel were sympathetic, but thought Whiston would find no other local recruits. Rundle in the same year became tutor to the only son of John Cater of Kempston, near Bedford. Here Whiston visited him, and suggested a critical examination of the Sibylline oracles, which he didn't complete. Going to London, he attended Whiston's society, which held meetings from 3 July 1715 to 28 June 1717; but Thomas Emlyn found Rundle worldly. Rundle informed Whiston that he intended to take holy orders, which Whiston took badly; and became more a follower of Samuel Clarke. Lord Santry was found guilty and sentenced to death, but King George II, with evident reluctance, was eventually persuaded to pardon him.

Death Rundle died unmarried at his house on Williams Street, Dublin on 14 April 1743, leaving most of his fortune of £20,000 to John Talbot.

Works Rundle published four single sermons (1718–36). His Letters … with Introductory Memoirs, Gloucester, 1789, 2 vols. (reprinted, Dublin, same year), were edited by James Dallaway. Most of them are addressed to Barbara (1685–1746), daughter of Sir Richard Kyrle, governor of South Carolina, and widow of William Sandys (1677–1712) of Miserden, Gloucestershire.