Ross - Sir Anthony Sherley and His Persian Adventure

SIR THOMAS SHERLEY of Wiston, Sussex, by his marriage in 1559 with Anne, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe, had three sons, Thomas, Anthony, and Robert, all of whom were destined to lead exceptionally adventurous lives. Although these brothers seldom shared the same adventures, their biographers have always written of this leash of brethren jointly, and no separate life of any one of them has hitherto appeared. This circumstance has no doubt stood in the way of the individual celebrity of Anthony and of Robert, while it has preserved the memory of Thomas, whose career was of far less interest than those of his two brothers.

It was the close association of Anthony and Robert with Persia that first aroused my interest in these brothers; and I have for many years been engaged in collecting new materials regarding them. As my researches proceeded, however, the documents began to multiply to such an extent that I came to the conclusion that it would be better to devote a separate work to each brother, and it was thus that I came to undertake the present volume on Sir Anthony Sherley for the Broadway Travellers Series. The main object of this Series has been to make accessible to the public narratives of travel and adventure with introductions and explanatory notes. The introductory matter in this volume occupies more space than usual, for I have reprinted in it a number of documents relating to Anthony Sherleys career. I do not claim to have written a complete biography of Anthony Sherley, as many European archives still need to be closely examined before such a history can be written. On the eve of sending this book to press I received from my friend Professor Babinger of Berlin his very valuable Sherleiana, in which he has dealt in the most scholarly manner with two episodes in Anthonys career, namely his journey from Moscow to Rome (16001) and his mission to Morocco (1605). Many of the sources he has drawn from were quite unknown to me, and as I have said above there still remain many others, notably in the archives of Vienna and Spain, which have not yet been examined.

I hope this volume may be followed by one on Robert Sherley, in connection with whom I have collected a vast amount of unpublished materials. Of Thomas there are relatively few records, but I intend to publish elsewhere a sketch of his life together with the diary he kept on his way home from Constantinople after being held prisoner by the Turks for three years (16036). This diary is preserved in the Archbishops Library at Lambeth Palace.