Thomas Sprott

For other people of the same name, see Thomas Sprott (disambiguation).

Blessed Thomas Sprott (died 1600), also spelled Thomas Spratt, was an English martyr.

Biography

He was born at Skelsmergh, near Kendal in Westmorland; suffered at Lincoln with Thomas Hunt on 11 July 1600. Sprott was ordained priest at Douai College in northern France, in 1596, was sent on the English 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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