Shirley, Thomas, Sir (1590 -1654)

Sir Thomas, of Bottle Bridge in the county of Huntingdon, was the third, but second surviving son, of Sir George Shirley, Baronet of Staunton Harold, and his first wife Frances, daughter of Henry Lord Berkeley. He was a friend of Sir Edward Dering, Sir Christopher Hatton and William Dugdale, being described by the last as “a great lover of Learning, especially affected to antiquities'” He was an author and a collector of manuscripts, many of which are now preserved in the British Library, and the library of Queen's College, Oxford. He married before 1628, Mary, daughter of Thomas Harpur of Rushall, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. He was knighted in 22 May 1622. A violent and bigoted Roman Catholic, he lost all his estates during the Commonwealth and died very much impoverished.