Martin Sherson

English priest and confessor, one of the Dilati (see ENGLISH MARTYRS), b. 1563; d. 1588. A native of Yorkshire, he matriculated at Oxford from St. John's College in 1575 at the age of twelve, becoming "a poor scholar of George Mannering who taught Rhetoric there"; arrived at the English College at Reims, 1 April, 1580; was confirmed by Bishop Goldwell, 11 June, 1580; left for Rome, 20 March; and entered the English College, 8 May, 1581,aged eighteen, where "through an over-zealous application to study and prayer he began to spit blood". He returned to Reims, 22 June, 1585; and was ordained sub-deacon in the chapel of the Holy Cross in Reims Cathedral, 21 Sept. by Mgr Louis de Brezé, Bishop of Meaux, deacon at Laon, 14 March, and priest at Laon, 5 April, 1586. He left for England, 16 June, and was imprisoned in the Marshalsea before 22 December, 1586. He was still there in March 1587-8, and died there soon after, aged twenty-five. Fr. Morris is in error in saying he died in February 1587-8, aged twenty-eight. "He was a young man of good abilities and well trained in piety and obedience. He was of moderate height, had a slight beard, a pale, oval face, and a rather large head."

POLLEN, Acts of the English Martyrs (London, 1891), 271; MORRIS, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers (3rd series, London, 1877), 36; KNOX, Douay Diaries (London, l878); FOLEY, Records Eng. Prov. S.J., VI (London, 1875-83), 125, 147; Catholic Record Society publications, II, V (London, 1905 ); FOSTER, Alumni Oxonienses.

John B. Wainewright.