THOMAS

See also:

• FITZHERBERT, SIR ANTHONY (1470–1538)
• THOMAS FITZHERBERT (1552–1640)

FITZHERBERT (1552–1640)  , English Jesuit, was the eldest son and heir of William Fitzherbert of Swynnetton in Staffordshire, and grandson of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, judge of the common pleas . He was educated at Oxford, where, at the age of twenty, he was imprisoned for recusancy . On his release he went to London, where he was a member of the association of young men founded in 158o to assist the Jesuits Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons . In 1582 he withdrew to the continent, where he was active in the cause of Mary, queen of Scots . He married in this year Dorothy, daughter of Edward East of Bledlow in Buckinghamshire . After the death of his wife (1588) he went to Spain, where on the recommendation of the duke of Feria he received a pension from the king . He continued his intrigues against the English government, and in 1598 he was charged with complicity in a plot to poison Queen Elizabeth . After this he was for a short while in the service of the duke of Feria at Milan, then went to Rome, where he was ordained priest (16(D1–16o2) and became agent for the English clergy . He was unpopular with them, however, owing to his subserviency to the Jesuits, and resigned the agency in 1607 owing to the remonstrances of the English arch-priest George Birkhead . In 1613 he joined the Society of Jesus, and was appointed superior of the English mission at Brussels in 1616, and in 1618 rector of the English college at Rome . He held this post to within a year of his death, which occurred at Rome on the 7th of August (O.S.) 164o . Father Fitzherbert, who is described as " a person of excellent parts, a notable politician, and of graceful behaviour and generous spirit," wrote many controversial works, a list of which is given in the article on him by Mr Thompson Cooper .in the Dictionary of National Biography, together with authorities for his life .