Thomas Shirley

Sir Thomas Shirley (1564 – c. 1630) was an English adventurer.

The son of Sir Thomas Shirley and elder brother of Sir Anthony Shirley, he was educated at Hart Hall, Oxford. He served in the English forces in the Low Countries, and was knighted in 1589 while serving in Ireland under Sir William Fitz-William. In 1591 he was imprisoned by order of the Queen for contracting a secret marriage.

In 1601 he was chosen a member of the Parliament of England for Hastings and later represented Steyning, but his time was mainly passed in seeking to restore the shattered fortunes of his family by piratical expeditions. (His father had contracted huge debts to the Crown while treasurer of the army.) In January 1603 he was captured by the Turks and he was only released from captivity in Constantinople in December 1605. In 1607 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for interfering with the Levant Company.

His younger brother Sir Robert was also a noted adventurer. One of his sons was Henry Shirley the dramatist, who was murdered in London on October 31, 1596, and one of his grandsons was Thomas Shirley (1638-1678), the physician and writer.

References

*1911
* Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)