Thomas of Otterbourne is the name of two English medieval chroniclers, very often confused. The later Thomas wrote in the early 15th century and covers in detail the reign of Richard II of England, extending to 1420. The text was printed in 1732 by Thomas Hearne, with that of

John Whethamstede John Whethamstede (died 20 January 1465) was an English abbot and one of the leading literary figures in fifteenth-century England. Life He was a son of Hugh and Margaret Bostock, and was born at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, owing his name, ...

. The earlier Thomas of Otterbourne was a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

, active in the middle of the fourteenth century. The two were regarded as probably the same man by the '' Dictionary of National Biography'', but this view is rejected by

Antonia Gransden Antonia Gransden (1928 – 18 January 2020), English historian and medievalist, was Reader in Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. She was author of works in medieval historiography, including the two-volume study ''Historical Writin ...

, who tentatively identifies him as the rector in 1393 of

Chingford Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow t ...

. They are also regarded as different by the ''

Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle The Medieval Chronicle Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval annals and chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography. It was founded in 1999 and in ...

''.

Notes

15th-century English historians English chroniclers {{England-writer-stub