Thomas Shirley

Sir Thomas Shirley (c.1542 – October 1612), of Wiston in Sussex, was an English Member of Parliament, government official and courtier who is said to have suggested the creation of the title of baronet. Family Thomas Shirley was the eldest of the three children of William Sherley (c.1498–1551) of Wiston, Sussex, and Mary Isley, the daughter of Thomas Isley of Sundridge, Kent. Career He was knighted in 1573, and served as High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1576. Also in 1573, he began rebuilding the family seat of Wiston House, which he turned into a massive country house. (It is now the site of the government's Wilton Park conference centre.) However, soon afterwards Shirley found himself in considerable financial difficulties which eventually swallowed the family fortune. In 1586 Queen Elizabeth I appointed Sir Thomas Treasurer-at-War to the English forces serving in the Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt. This gave him the power to speculate with the funds that passed through his hands (a normal perk of office at this period), but he so mishandled them that he contracted massive debts to the Crown and found himself accused of fraud. His estate, including Wiston House, was sequestered in 1602, though he continued to live at Wiston until his death in October 1612.