Sergeant, RICHARD, VENERABLE, English martyr, executed at Tyburn, April 20, 1586. He was probably a younger son of Thomas Sergeant of Stone, Gloucestershire, by Katherine, daughter of John Trye of Hardwick. He took his degree at Oxford (February 20, 1570-1), and arrived at the English College, Reims, on July 25, 1581. He was ordained sub deacon at Reims (April 4, 1582), deacon at Soissons (June 9, 1582), and priest at Laon (April 7, 1583). He said his first Mass on April 21, and left for England on September 10. He was indicted at the Old Bailey (April 17, 1586) as Richard Lea alias Longe. With him was condemned and suffered Venerable William Thomson, a native of Blackburn, Lancashire, who arrived at the English College, Reims, on May 28, 1583, and was ordained priest in the Reims cathedral (March 31, 1583-4). Thomson was arrested in the house of Rogers Line, husband of the martyr Anne Line (q.v.), in Bishopsgate St. Without, while saying Mass. Both were executed merely for being priests and coming into the realm.
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT