Thomas Cavendish (1555-1592) was born in Trimley St. Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was a descendant of Roger Cavendish , brother to Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle derive their family name of Cavendish.

Thomas Cavendish was known as "the Navigator". He shared in Sir Richard Grenville's expedition to Virginia in 1585, and had circumnavigated the world not long after Francis Drake.

In 1586 he sailed with three ships for the Pacific where he burned three Spanish towns and thirteen ships. He seized the Santa Anna off Acapulco. He returned via the Cape of Good Hope to England with only one of his ships, the Desire, in 1588, after which Queen Elizabeth I knighted him.

A second expedition in 1591 ended in disaster, and Thomas Cavendish died off Ascension Island.