Sir Thomas Shirley (c. 1564 – c. 1634) was an English soldier, adventurer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1622. His financial difficulties drove him into privateering which culminated in his capture by the Turks and later imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Family
Thomas Shirley was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston House, Sussex, and Anne Kempe, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe (d. 7 March 1591) of Olantigh in Wye, Kent. Sir Anthony Shirley and Sir Robert Shirley were his younger brothers.
Career
thumb|upright=1.2|Wiston House today
Shirley matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford in 1579, but left the university without taking a degree. In 1584 he was elected Member of Parliament for Steyning. He went on military service with his father and brother in the Low Countries in 1585, and later saw some in Ireland. He was knighted at Kilkenny in Ireland by Lord Deputy William Fitz-William on 26 October 1589. Shirley later came to the court. In the summer of 1591, he was married secretly to one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour, and when the queen heard of it, she promptly committed him to the prison at Marshalsea. He remained in prison until the spring of 1592.