Thomas Carlyle

Who was Thomas Carlyle?

Thomas Carlyle was born in King's Grange near Dumfries in Scotland.

He studied and finished law at University of Edinburgh. In 1824 he was registered as lawyer at the Scottish bar. In October 1824 he inherited the title "Baron Carlyle of Torthorwald".

From 1830 on, he came in contact with the Scottish reverend Edward Irving and was named "apostle" of the Catholic Apostolic Church on 1 May 1835. He took responsibility for Northern Germany.

He is not to be confused with the better-known man of letters Thomas Carlyle, born a few years earlier also in Scotland. He too was connected to Irving, who introduced him to his wife, Jane Welsh. One biographer asserts that the similarities did cause confusion: "As a 'double-goer', perplexing strangers in foreign parts as well as at home, the 'Apostle' was occasionally an innocent, inadvertent nuisance to 'our Tom'."