Thomas FITZHERBERT of Swynnerton and Bledlowe

Born: 1552

Died: 17 Aug 1640

Father: William FITZHERBERT of Swynnerton (MP)

Mother: Elizabeth SWYNNERTON

Married: Dorothy EAST (dau. of Edward East)

Eldest son and heir of William Fitzherbert, esq., of Swynnerton, Staffordshire, by Elizabeth, second daughter and coheiress of Humphrey Swynnerton, esq., of Swynnerton. He was a grandson of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, justice of the common pleas.

Born at Swynnerton in 1552, he was sent either to Exeter or to Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1568. Having openly defended the catholic faith, he was obliged to live in concealment for two years, and being at last seized in 1572 he was imprisoned for recusancy. After his release he found it prudent to remove to London, where he was an active member of the association of young men founded by George Gilbert in 1580 for the assistance of the jesuits Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion. In that year he married Dorothy, the only daughter of Edward East, esq., of Bledlow, Buckinghamshire. He retired with his wife to France in 1582. There he was 'a zealous solicitor' in the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots.

After the death of his wife, in 1588, he went to Spain, where, on the recommendation of the Duke of Feria, he received a pension from Felipe II. His name is repeatedly mentioned in the letters and reports preserved among our State Papers. When on a visit to Brussels in 1595 he was charged before the state of Flanders with holding a correspondence with the English secretary of state, and with a design to set fire to the magazine at Mechlin, but was extricated by the Duke of Feria. In 1598 Fitzherbert and Father Richard Walpole were denounced by Edward Squire, and charged with conspiring to poison Queen Elizabeth and by applying poison to the pommel of her horse's saddle. For this plot Edward Squire confessed to the charge and was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 13 Nov 1598.

After a brief stay at Milan in the service of the Duke of Feria, Fitzherbert proceeded to Rome, where he was ordained priest 24 Mar 1601/2. For twelve years he acted as agent at Rome for the English clergy. In 1606 he made a private vow to enter the Society of Jesus. In 1607, when the court of Rome had some thoughts of sending a bishop to England, Fitzherbert was on the list, with three other candidates. He resigned the office of agent for the clergy in consequence of the remonstrance of the archpriest George Birkhead and the rest of the body, who appointed Dr. Richard Smith, bishop of Chalcedon, to take his place. They were induced to it by a jealousy of some long standing. They had discovered that Fitzherbert had constantly consulted Father Parsons and the Jesuits in all matters relating to the clergy, and that, too, contrary to the express order lately directed to the archpriest from Rome.

In 1613 he carried into effect his vow to enter the order of Jesuits, and in 1616 was appointed superior of the English mission at Brussels, an office which he filled for two years. In 1618 he succeeded Father Thomas Owen as rector of the English College at Rome, and governed that establishment till Mar 1639, when he was succeeded by Father Thomas Leeds, alias Courtney. He died in the college on 7 Aug 1640, and was buried in the chapel.

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