Thomas Starkey was born in 1495, entering a world shaped by the early decades of Tudor rule in England. He received his education at Magdalen College, and went on to work as a writer, producing his work in English.

Writing in English placed his output in the vernacular rather than Latin, a choice that defined the texture of what he produced. Beyond that, the details of his career remain sparse in the surviving record. He died in 1538 in Oxford, the city where Magdalen College had given him his formation, and that is where his story closes.