Thomas Troward was born in Punjab, India, in 1847 of British parents, Albany and Frederica Troward. His father was a full colonel in the Indian Army. He was brought back to England to attend school and in 1865, at the age of 18, he graduated from college with gold medal honors in literature. He then decided to study Law, although at heart he always considered himself an artist and a painter.

At age 22, in 1869, he returned to India and took the difficult Indian Civil Service Examination. One of the subjects was metaphysics and Troward surprised everyone with his answers because of their originality. He became an assistant commissioner and was quickly promoted to Divisional Judge in the Punjab, where he served for the next 25 years.

In India, he married his first wife. Together, they had three children. He married a second time after his first wife died and had three more children. His second wife, Sarah Ann, helped in the publishing of his works after his death. In the forward to a publication entitled, Troward's Comments On The Psalms, Annie Troward writes: "When he retired from the Bengal Civil Service in 1896, he decided to devote himself to three objects -- the study of the Bible, writing his books, and painting pictures... He believed that the solution to all our problems was there (in the Bible) for those who read and meditated with minds at one with its Inspirer."