Thomas Goodwin known as "the Elder" was an English Puritan scholar and evangelist, and a vital pioneer of religious Independents. He filled in as clergyman to Oliver Cromwell, and was installed as President of Magdalen College, Oxford, by the Parliament in 1650.
Edmund Calamy evaluated Elder's Goodwin's characteristics as an impressive researcher and a prominent heavenly minded person, and had an exceptionally upbeat workforce in preaching the Scripture.
A journal, got from his gathered write-ups, by his child Thomas Goodwin the Younger, is prefixed to the fifth volume of his gathered works. As a patriarch and Atlas of Independency, he is likewise seen by Anthony Wood in the Athenae Oxonienses.