THOMAS

See also:

• TRYON, DWIGHT WILLIAM (1849- )
• TRYON, SIR GEORGE (1832-1893)
• THOMAS TRYON (1634–1703)
• TRYON, WILLIAM (1729–1788)

TRYON (1634–1703)  , English humanitarian, was born at Bilbury near Cirencester on the 6th of September 1634 . He had but little schooling, spending his youth first in spinning and carding and then as a shepherd . In 1652 he went to London, apprenticed himself to a hatter, and accepted his master's Anabaptist principles until he read the works of Jacob Behmen . He now lived a very ascetic life, though he married and became a prosperous merchant . In 1682 he began to publish his views in support of vegetarianism and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco . He detested war, and in this and his mysticism resembled the early Quakers . He died on the 21st of August 1703 . His best known book, The Way to Health (1691), which much impressed Benjamin Franklin, was a second edition of Health's Grand Preservative; or, The Women's Best Doctor (London, 1682) . He wrote on many other subjects, e.g. the education of children, the treatment of negro slaves, the way to save wealth, and dreams and visions . Some scanty autobiographical memoirs were published in 1705 .