Thomas Ken was born in 1637 at Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the son of a Protestant gentry family. He attended The King's School, Canterbury, and later Winchester College, then studied at New College, Oxford, where he developed a reputation for theological acumen and piety.

After his ordination, Ken held various church positions, serving as a chaplain and parish minister. In 1679, he became chaplain to Mary of Modena, the Catholic queen of James II, but his unwavering Anglican principles and personal integrity earned him respect even in that delicate position. He refused to compromise the Church's doctrine despite the royal court's proximity to Catholicism.

In 1685, Ken was elevated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, a position of considerable importance in the English hierarchy. He remained bishop for only three years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 transformed the English religious and political landscape. When William III and Mary II ascended the throne as joint monarchs, they required all clergy to swear an oath of allegiance to the new sovereigns.

Ken, along with six other bishops, refused to take the oath to William III, maintaining his prior oath to James II as a matter of conscience and principle. This act of non-juror steadfastness cost him his bishopric, his income, and his freedom of movement. He spent his final years in relative poverty and obscurity, first living quietly at Longleat House, then on the Isle of Man (briefly imprisoned), and finally in small rooms in London. He died in 1711, unreconciled to the new regime.

Ken was a skilled theologian and prolific writer of devotional works, sermons, and—most enduringly—hymns. His two hymns, composed in the 1690s, were intended to frame the Christian day: the morning hymn 'Awake my soul and with the sun' and the evening hymn 'All praise to thee my God this night' became canonical in Anglican practice.

Thomas Ken developed no formal cult but became an emblematic figure for the non-juror cause and later for Anglo-Catholic and High Church traditions that valued conscience and principle over mere political pragmatism. His refusal to swear allegiance to William III, despite enormous personal cost, made him a martyr-confessor of principle—suffering not violent death but exile, deprivation, and lifelong poverty for fidelity to his oath. In the nineteenth century, the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholic revival recovered his figure as an exemplar of apostolic fidelity and ecclesiastical integrity. However, his commemoration in modern Anglican tradition is primarily through his hymns, which became canonical in Prayer Book services. His hymns frame the Christian day and remain among the most valued in English hymnody. Unlike more overtly hagiographic traditions, Ken's veneration rests on the enduring value of his spiritual compositions and on historical admiration for his conscientious stand, rather than on miraculous claims or a developed cult.