Thomas Fatuus

Thomas Fatuus was a fool employed by the Prior of Durham in the fourteenth century. Priory accounts from 1330 to 1340 record repeated payments for new slippers, which suggest that dancing may have been part of his act. His Latin name translates as “Tom Fool”.

One story has a monkey taking his place. His name belongs to the wider “Tom Fool” tradition: that general name for a foolish person eventually gave English the word “tomfoolery”.