Blessed Thomas Sherwood

Thomas Sherwood (c. 1551–1578) was a Catholic layman and martyr. He was arrested on suspicion of treason, having visited a house where it seems that Mass was secretly celebrated. Sherwood was born in London of Henry and Elizabeth Sherwood, Catholics who both endured imprisonment for their faith. His father, Henry Sherwood, was a woolen draper. Thomas was a cousin of Francis Tregian who was later imprisoned for sheltering Cuthbert Mayne. At the age of fifteen Thomas left school to assist his father in the woolen business for the next ten years. In 1576 he decided to travel to the new English College at Douai and study for the priesthood. He subsequently returned home to adjust his accounts, and obtain funds to support his studies. In the city he was a visitor to the house of Lady Tregonwell of Dorsetshire, where it seems that Mass was secretly offered. The woman's son, by her first marriage, Protestant George Marten, resented this. Happening to see Sherwood in the street in Chancery Lane, he began to cry "Stop the traitor" aloud. In this way he managed to have Thomas brought before a judge. Although there was no proof of any kind against him, he implicated himself by answering openly on the issue of the Queen's supremacy. Being examined before the Recorder as to his opinion of the bull of Pius V and as to whether an excommunicated queen held lawful sovereignty, he denied all knowledge of both Bull and excommunication, but expressed his opinion that if the queen were indeed excommunicated her rule could not be lawful. Once he had been imprisoned in the Tower of London, and at the orders of the Privy Council, his lodgings were searched and a large sum of money, approximately 20-30 pounds, which Thomas had borrowed to help his sick father, was removed. The funds were confiscated. Twice racked with a view to extracting details of houses where the Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated, Thomas kept silent.