Thomas Filler, an English author, born at Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire, in June, 1(508, died Aug. 15, 1661. He was educated at Queen's college, Cambridge, won the highest university honors, received the living of St. Benet's, Cambridge, where he exhibited great eloquence as a preacher, and was also made a prebendary of Salisbury. His first publication was a poem entitled David's Hainous Sinne, heartie Repentance, heavie Punishment" (London, 1631). He was soon after presented to the rectory of Broad Windsor, Dorsetshire, where he prosecuted several works that he had planned at Cambridge. After seven years he removed to London, where his fame for pulpit eloquence secured for him the lectureship of the Savoy, and he published his "Historic of the Holy Warre (Cambridge, 1639). In 1640 he was a member of the convocation assembled in Henry VII.'s chapel, Westminster, to make canons for the better government of the church, of whose proceedings he gives an interesting account in his "Church History." After the outbreak of the civil war he identified himself with the royal cause, and obtained a chaplaincy in the army under Sir Ralph Hopton. He improved the leisure which this position gave him, and the facilities presented by the marches and countermarches through the country, in collecting by an extensive correspondence and personal inquiries the materials for his Worthies of England." He was besieged at Basing House in 1644 with a small party of royalists, but animated the garrison to so vigorous a defence that the parliamentary commander was obliged to retire with considerable loss.

Taking refuge in Exeter on. the defeat of Hopton in 1645, he preached constantly to the citizens till its surrender in April, 1646, and published there his Good Thoughts in Bad Times" (1645). His Good Thoughts in Worse Times appeared in 1646, after his return to London, and he published a new edition with the Second Century of Good Thoughts in Bad Times" (1647); in 1660 he completed the series with "Mixt Contemplations in Better Times." He continued to preach and to publish tracts and sermons, notwithstanding "it had been the pleasure of the present authority to make him mute," and notwithstanding Cromwell's prohibition of all persons from preaching or teaching schools who had been adherents of the late king. In 1648 he became rector of Waltham abbey in Essex, and in 1658 chaplain to Lord Berkeley and rector of Cranford. Shortly before the restoration he was reinstated in his lectureship at the Savoy, and after that event was chosen chaplain extraordinary to the king, and regained the prebend of Salisbury. A bishopric was expected for him when he died. He was buried in his church at Cranford, in the chancel of which his monument still remains.

His" Holy and Profane State, a collection of Characters, Moral Essays, and Lives, Ancient, Foreign, and Domestic (Cambridge, 1642), proposing examples for our imitation and abhorrence, is one of his best productions, and fully exhibits his sagacity of thought and pithiness of style. His "Church History of Britain, from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the year MDCXLVIII." (London, 1655), though abounding in jokes, quibbles, dedications, anecdotes, and curious and irrelevant learning, is one of the most remarkable works in the language for wit, piety, pathos, and imagination. The "History of the Worthies of England," a collection of eccentric biographies, published posthumously'(London, 1662), has been more generally read than any other of his works, and abounds in gossip, admirably told stories, curious details, and witty and excellent reflections. The style of all his writings is extremely quaint and idiomatic, in short and simple sentences, and singularly free from the pedantry of his time.