Thomas Everard, born at Linstead, Suffolk, in 1560, was the son of a Catholic father and was probably brought up as a Catholic in England. As a comparatively young man he met Fr. John Gerard S.J. and under Fr. Gerard’s influence he went abroad to train for the priesthood. He was ordained priest in 1592 and joined the Society of Jesus in the following year. His subsequent career was similar to that of many another English Jesuit of the period. He was Minister for some years at St. Omers College and also at the nearby Jesuit house at Watten, and he later held the post of Socius to the Master of Novices in the Novitiate at Louvain. For a short period in 1605/06 he was in England on the mission, and again in 1617 he came over to his native country, only to be betrayed a year later into the hands of the priest-hunters and imprisoned. He was released from prison in 1620 and sent into exile, but once again he returned to England and continued to work on the mission in spite of further imprisonment and great hardship. He died in London in 1633 (1).

Between the years 1611 and 1620, a number of books supporting the Jacobean Oath of Allegiance were printed in London at the instigation of the English Government. The author's name on the title-pages of these books was given generally as “Roger Widdrington, an English Catholic”, sometimes simply as “Roger Widdrington”. Some of the books were in English, others were in Latin. Taken together, they represent what was probably the most learned and formidable defence of the Oath composed by any pen then active. At that time, the common opinion of those in a position to know, both in England and abroad, was that the name “Roger Widdrington” was a pseudonym which concealed the identity of the real author, the Benedictine priest, Thomas Preston. The modern accounts of his career given, for example, by Gillow (in his ‘Bibliographical Dictionary’) and by Thompson Cooper (in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’) accept this traditional identification.

Between the years 1611 and 1620, a number of books supporting the Jacobean Oath of Allegiance were printed in London at the instigation of the English Government. The author's name on the title-pages of these books was given generally as “Roger Widdrington, an English Catholic”, sometimes simply as “Roger Widdrington”. Some of the books were in English, others were in Latin. Taken together, they represent what was probably the most learned and formidable defence of the Oath composed by any pen then active. At that time, the common opinion of those in a position to know, both in England and abroad, was that the name “Roger Widdrington” was a pseudonym which concealed the identity of the real author, the Benedictine priest, Thomas Preston. The modern accounts of his career given, for example, by Gillow (in his ‘Bibliographical Dictionary’) and by Thompson Cooper (in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’) accept this traditional identification.