The Hon. Thomas James Twisleton (also Twistleton) (1770–1824) was an English churchman, Archdeacon of Colombo from 1815 to 1824. His early marriage is thought to have contributed to the use by Jane Austen of amateur theatricals as a plot device in her novel Mansfield Park. He was also noted as an amateur cricketer.
Contents
Life
He was born on 28 September 1770 at Broughton, Oxfordshire, the youngest son of Thomas Twisleton, later Thomas Twisleton, 13th Baron Saye and Sele. He was educated at Westminster School, where he was a scholar, playing sports, and participated in The Trifler, a periodical, with John Hensleigh Allen and others. He matriculated at St Mary Hall, Oxford on 2 February 1789, aged 18, graduating B.A. in 1794, and M.A. 1796.
Twisleton was ordained in 1795, and became a curate at Charwelton. He was short of money, but was offered livings, appointed in 1796 to Blakesley by Susannah Wight of Blakesley Hall, which he had for the rest of his life; and later to Broadwell with Adlestrop, in the gift of Chandos Leigh, his nephew.
In 1802 Twisleton became secretary and chaplain to the British administration in Ceylon. He was appointed Archdeacon of Colombo in 1815, receiving the Oxford degree of D.D. in 1816. He died in Colombo, on 15 October 1824.