Thomas Arnold of Rugby

Dr. Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was a British educator and historian and father of the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold. The elder Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. He was headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, where he introduced a number of reforms. His wife was the former Mary Penrose of Cornwall. In 1832 the Arnolds purchased the Fox How estate near Ambleside in the Lake District and regularly vacationed there, becoming close friends with the Wordsworths and with frequent guest, Henry Crabb Robinson, the Unitarian.