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Thomas Lant (1554–1601) was adraftsman and long-servingofficer of arms at theCollege of Arms inLondon. Lant was born inGloucester and was one of seven children of Thomas and Mary Lant. When Lant was twelve years old, he became apage toRichard Cheney, theBishop of Gloucester. When Cheney died in 1579, Lant again became a page, this time forHenry Cheney. It was through Lord Cheney that Lant became connected withSir Philip Sidney. The two accompanied each other to theLow Countries in 1585. Lant was the draftsman of roll recording Sidney's funeral procession atSt Paul's on 16 February 1587.

Following Sidney's death, Lant went to work forSir Francis Walsingham, the secretary of state. It was through Walsingham that Lant secured an appointment asPortcullis Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms on 20 May 1588. It was as Portcullis that Lant wroteObservations and Collections Concerning the Office and Officers of Arms describing the College as "a company full of discord and envy." In 1595, Lant presented the queen a catalog of officers of arms known as Lant's Roll of which several copies survive. In 1596 Lant was involved in an argument withRalph Brooke,York Herald of Arms in Ordinary. This led to Lant assaulting Brooke at theMiddle Temple. Lant was createdWindsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary on 23 October 1597.

Lant's date of death is uncertain. He was alive on 26 December 1600 but is thought to have died early in 1601. He and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Houghton, had two children, a daughter and a son. The son, Thomas, was born after his father's death and died on 18 May 1688 asrector of Hornsey, Middlesex. Lant's wife remarried on 28 September 1609 at theSavoy Chapel, Westminster. The union was with thealchemist Francis Anthony, and the marriage licence describes her as being 36 years old and the widow of "Thomas Lant, gent., deceased eight years since."

Coat of arms of Thomas Lant

Crest A dove argent, beak & legs gules, standing on a serpent fretted proper. Escutcheon Per pale argent & gules, a cross engrailed counter-changed with a cinquefoil gules in dexter chief.[1] Motto Prudentia et Simplicitate

• Heraldry
• Pursuivant
• Herald

• Cooper, Thompson (1892)."Lant, Thomas" . InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Walter H. Godfrey andSir Anthony Wagner,The College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street: being the sixteenth and final monograph of the London Survey Committee. (London, 1963), 171–172.
• Mark Noble.A History of the College of Arms. (London, 1805), 171–172.
• Sir Anthony Wagner.Heralds of England: a History of the Office and College of Arms. (London, 1967), 87–88, 217–219.
• Woodcock, Thomas. "Lant, Thomas".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16057. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)

EnglishWikisource has original text related to this article:

Lant, Thomas (DNB00)

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