Fowle was educated at the
University of Cambridge, where he
matriculated from
St John's in 1547, graduated
BA in 1549/50 and proceeded
MA in 1553. He was elected a Fellow of St John's, but under
Queen Mary I was ejected. He then served in or near the
City of London as a minister to a secret congregation of
Protestants. On 4 May 1558, Fowle began to receive a salary of ten
pounds a year as tutor to the young
Edward de Vere, then aged eight. In November of the same year, de Vere matriculated as a fellow-commoner of
Queens' College, Cambridge. Soon after the accession of
Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, Fowle was restored to his fellowship at St John's. On 4 November 1562 he was collated as Rector of
Aldham, Essex, but had resigned before 19 November 1563. On 22 July 1563, he was installed as second
prebendary of
Norwich Cathedral, when it was noted that he lived at
Redgrave in Suffolk, where he was both rector of the parish and
chaplain to
Lord Keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon. From 1561 to 1566, he was also Rector of
Hinderclay in Suffolk. On 4 January 1569/70, Fowle became a senior fellow of St John's College. In 1570, he was part of a group of prebendaries of Norwich who "disaffected to the
established order as regards matters ecclesiastical, entered into the choir of that cathedral, forcibly broke down the organs and committed certain other disorders of the like outrageous character". It was also said of him that he never went to Norwich except to collect the
stipend due to him. In 1572, he was a member of a commission against
Roman Catholic recusants in
Norfolk, and in 1573 with John Handson and John Grundye he was appointed by
John Parkhurst, the
Bishop of Norwich, to take charge of "religious exercises termed prophesyings" at
Bury St Edmunds. Soon afterwards, such exercises were forbidden on the authority of Queen Elizabeth. He held his prebend at Norwich until 1581, when he resigned. He continued as rector of Redgrave until 1597. Fowle's
will mentions sons named Nicholas and Thomas. In 1586, a Thomas Fowle was Master of the school at
Botesdale in Suffolk. ==Notes==