Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., who was the son of Thomas Phillipps, of Broadway, Worcestershire, was born at Manchester on the 2nd of July 1792. He was educated at Rugby, and in 1811 proceeded to University College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1815 and M.A. in 1820. In 1818, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the family estates, and in 1821 he was created a baronet. Phillipps died at Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, on the 6th of February 1872, and was buried at Broadway. He was twice married, and by his first wife had three daughters. Phillipps, who was a Trustee of the British Museum and a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, and also a member of the principal learned societies, both English and foreign, began at a very early age to collect books. While at Rugby he formed a small library, the catalogue of which is still in existence, and the inheritance of his father's property in 1818 enabled him to commence the formation of his magnificent collection of manuscripts. With a view to their acquisition, in 1820 he paid a visit to the Continent, and remained abroad until 1825, during which time he made large purchases of manuscripts, especially at the sale of the famous Meerman collection at the Hague in 1824, and he also privately bought the manuscripts belonging to the extensive and important collection of Professor Van Ess of Darmstadt, together with a number of his early printed books. Phillipps was indefatigable in the acquirement of his treasures, and at the time of his death his library contained some sixty thousand manuscripts, and a goodly collection of printed books. He writes: 'In amassing my collection of manuscripts, I commenced with purchasing everything that lay within my reach, to which I was instigated by reading various accounts of the destruction of valuable manuscripts.... My principal search has been for historical, and particularly unpublished manuscripts, whether good or bad, and particularly those on vellum. My chief desire for preserving vellum manuscripts arose from witnessing the unceasing destruction of them by goldbeaters; my search for charters or deeds by their destruction in the shops of glue-makers and tailors. As I advanced the ardour of the pursuit increased, until at last I became a perfect vello-maniac (if I may coin a word), and I gave any price that was asked. Nor do I regret it, for my object was not only to secure good manuscripts for myself, but also to raise the public estimation of them, so that their value might be more generally known, and consequently more manuscripts preserved. For nothing tends to the preservation of anything so much as making it bear a high price. The examples I always kept in view were Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Robert Harley.'

Sir Thomas Phillipps's collection was not confined to European manuscripts. It contained several hundred Oriental ones, and he also acquired those relating to Mexico belonging to Lord Kingsborough. The illuminated manuscripts were particularly fine, and some of them had been executed for regal and other distinguished persons, and were beautifully bound. Many of the manuscripts which related to Ireland and Wales were of special interest and great value. For many years Phillipps kept his library, together with his fine collections of pictures, drawings, and coins at his residence at Middle Hill, Worcestershire; but in 1862, in consequence of their ever-increasing size, he removed them to Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, which he purchased from Lord Northwick. On Sir Thomas's death his entailed Middle Hill estates went to his eldest daughter, Henrietta Elizabeth Molyneux, the wife of James Orchard Halliwell, the Shakespearian commentator, but in a will made shortly before his death he left Thirlestaine House, together with his books, manuscripts, pictures, and other collections, to his third daughter, Katherine Somerset Wyttenbach, wife of the Rev. J.E.A. Fenwick, at one time vicar of Needwood, Staffordshire. This bequest was, however, encumbered with the singular condition, that neither his eldest daughter, nor her husband, nor any Roman Catholic should ever enter the house.[97] His second daughter, Maria Sophia, who married the Rev. John Walcott of Bitterley Court, Shropshire, predeceased her father. Since the manuscripts came into the possession of Mrs. Fenwick, portions have been sold by private arrangement to several of the foreign governments; amongst these, however, were no English ones. A large number of the remainder have been disposed of by auction at a series of sales by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, but the immense collection is by no means exhausted. The first sale took place on August 3rd, 1886, and seven following days; and the others on January 22nd, 1889, and two following days; July 15th, 1891, and following day; December 7th, 1891, and following day; July 4th, 1892, and two following days; June 19th, 1893, and three following days; March 21st, 1895, and four following days; June 10th, 1896, and six following days; May 17th, 1897, and three following days; June 6th, 1898, and five following days; and June 5th, 1899, and five following days. The total amount realised at all these auction sales is upwards of thirty-six thousand six hundred pounds. The printed books in Phillipps's library, which 'included a complete set of the publications privately printed by him at Middle Hill; important heraldic and genealogical works, county histories and topography, Welsh books, valuable dictionaries and grammars, and a large collection of rare articles relating to America; history, voyages and travels,' were sold in three parts by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on August 3rd, 1886, and seven following days; January 22nd, 1889, and two following days; and December 7th, 1891, and following day. There were five thousand four hundred and sixty-two lots in the three sales, which realised three thousand two hundred and fourteen pounds, thirteen shillings and threepence.

About 1822 Sir Thomas Phillipps set up a private printing-press in Broadway Tower, situated on his Middle Hill estate, where he printed a large number of his manuscripts. Among the more important of these were:—Institutiones Clericorum in Comitatu WiltoniÆ, 1297-1810, two volumes, 1821-25, folio; Monumental Inscriptions in the County of Wilton, two volumes, 1822, folio (only six copies of this work were printed, one of which realised fourteen pounds, ten shillings at the sale of the books); A Book of Glamorganshire Antiquities, by Rice Merrick, Esq., 1578, now first published by Sir T. Phillipps, Bart., 1825, folio; and Collectanea de Familiis Diversis quibus nomen est Phillipps, etc., two volumes, 1816-40, folio (a copy of which fetched sixteen pounds at the sale). Phillipps also printed catalogues of his manuscripts and printed books. A fair but not complete list of the works will be found in Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature. In 1862 the printing-press was removed with the library and other collections to Thirlestaine House.