Richard Sergeant

Richard Sergeant (executed at Tyburn, 20 April1586) 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

*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