Thomas Sprott

Blessed Thomas Sprott, also spelled Thomas Spratt, was an English martyr.

Biography

He was born at Skelsmergh, near Kendal in Westmoreland; suffered at Lincoln with Thomas Hunt on 11 July, 1600. Sprott was ordained priest from the English College at Douai (northern France), in 1596, was sent on the mission that same year, and signed the letter to the pope, dated 8 November, 1598, in favour of the institution in England of the archpriest. Hunt, a native of Norfolk, was a priest of the English College of Seville, and had been imprisoned at Wisbech, where he had escaped with five others, some months previously. They were arrested at the Saracen's Head, Lincoln, upon the discovery of the holy oils and two Breviaries in their mails. When brought to trial, though their being priests was neither proved nor confessed, nor was any evidence produced, the judge, Sir John Glanville, directed the jury to find them guilty, which was done. The judge died sixteen days afterwards under unusual circumstances, as Dr. Worthington (quoted by Bishop Challoner) records.

Thomas Sprott was among the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.

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*Catholic [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14238a.htm]