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. Life 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.