Francis Tallents (1619–1708) was a non-conforming English Presbyterian clergyman.
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He was the eldest son of Philip Tallents, whose father, a Frenchman, accompanied Sir Francis Leake to England after saving his life. Francis Tallents was born at Pilsley in the parish of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, in November 1619. His father dying when he was fourteen, Tallents was sent by an uncle, Francis Tallents, to the free schools at Mansfield and Newark.
Tallents studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1635, and then moved to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to become sub-tutor to the sons of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk. In 1642 he travelled abroad with his pupils, and stayed for a time at Saumur. On his return he was chosen Fellow and tutor of Magdalene.[1] He received presbyterian ordination at St Mary's Woolnoth, London, on 29 November 1648. In October 1649 he was chosen one of the twelve graduates who had power to preach without episcopal license.
In 1652 Tallents was invited by the mayor and aldermen, and urged by Richard Baxter, to become lecturer and curate at St. Mary's, Shrewsbury. His nomination was dated 4 January 1653, and the committee of plundered ministers added £50 to his income. At the Restoration the commissioners appointed to restore deposed ministers were petitioned to allow him to remain, his predecessor, one Prowde, concurring. On 10 October 1661 he received confirmation of his office, but the next year was several times imprisoned in Shrewsbury Castle for preaching, and, on his refusal to receive further ordination, he was ejected in September 1662.
After that time he regularly attended worship at St. Mary's, only preaching himself at different hours, and thus he escaped molestation. From February 1671 to about 1674 he resided with his pupil, John Hampden the younger, near Paris. On his return he joined with John (died 1699), eldest son of John Bryan, D.D., in ministering to the presbyterian congregation at Oliver Chapel, High Street, Shrewsbury. An indictment was framed against him for holding a conventicle in December 1680, but he was able to prove an alibi, having spent the whole of the winter in France.
He was under suspicion after Monmouth's rebellion in 1685, and was lodged in Chester Castle, but was soon released, and on James II's progress to Shrewsbury in September 1686 he joined in the presentation to him of a purse of gold in recognition of the Indulgence. He died at Shrewsbury on 11 April 1708, aged nearly eighty-nine, and was buried on the 15th in St. Mary's Church. He composed his own epitaph.
His 1705 History of Schism involved him in controversy with the nonjuring clergyman Samuel Grascome (1641–1708).
Besides a sermon preached at the funeral of Philip Henry, republished in ‘Eighteen Sermons,’ London, 1816, Tallents published:
A manuscript journal of Tallents's travels was in the possession of Job Orton, and then was owned by the Rev. John Brickdale Blakeway in 1825, who used it in compiling the History of Shrewsbury.
Tallents was four times married:
By his first wife only had he issue—a son Francis, born on 7 September 1656, admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1672, graduated thence B.A. 1675, M.A. 1679. He became chaplain to Sir D. Gauden, the sheriff of London, was acquainted with Pepys, and died in early life.
Francis Hutchinson was the son of his sister Mary. Tallents directed his historical studies, and employed him (about 1680) in taking the manuscript of his View of Universal History to Edward Stillingfleet, William Beveridge, and Richard Kidder, for their corrections before it was printed.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Tallents, Francis". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.