Richard Sergeant

Richard Sergeant (executed at Tyburn, 20 April 1586) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987.

Life

He was probably a younger son of Thomas Sergeant of Stone, Gloucestershire, by Katherine, daughter of John Tyre of Hardwick. He took his degree at the University of Oxford (20 February 1570-1), and arrived at the English College, Reims, on 25 July 1581.

He was ordained subdeacon at Reims (4 April 1582), deacon at Soissons (9 June 1582), and priest at Laon (7 April 1583). He said his first Mass on 21 April, and left for England on 10 September.

He was indicted at the Old Bailey (17 April 1586) as Richard Lea alias Longe. With him was condemned and died William Thomson, a native of Blackburn, Lancashire, who arrived at the English College, Reims, on 28 May 1583, and was ordained priest in the Reims cathedral (31 March 1583-4). Thomson was arrested in the house of Roger Line, husband of Anne Line in Bishopsgate St. Without, while saying Mass.

Both were executed for being Catholic priests and coming into the realm.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ven. Richard Sergeant". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
  • Richard Challoner, Missionary priests, I (London, 1878), nos. 32, 33
  • Thomas Francis Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878)
  • Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, (Oxford, 1892)
  • Harleian Society Publ. xxi (London, 1885), 258
  • John Hungerford Pollen, English Martyrs 1584-1603 in Cath. Rec. Soc. (London, 1908), 129
  • Catholic Record Society II (London, 1906), 249, 255, 271