Ravenscroft, Thomas (c. 1582–c. 1633)

English composer. He was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral under Edward Pearce, took a degree in music at Cambridge University in 1607, and was music master at Christ's Hospital 1618–22.

Works Vocal anthems, 55 of the 105 hymn-tune settings contained in his Psalter; madrigals, some of the four-part songs The Pleasures of Five Usuall Recreations in his treatise on notation A Briefe Discourse (1614) are by himself; some of the rounds and catches in the collections Pammelia (1609), Deuteromelia (1609), and Melismata (1611) are probably of his own composing.