Title: The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter, Being a Proof, with Moral Certitude, of the Authorship of the Document
Author: Henry Spink
Release date: June 18, 2012 [eBook #40029]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Henry Gardiner and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
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“Veritas temporis filia. Truth is the daughter of Time, especially in this case, wherein, by timely and often examinations, matters of greatest moment have been found out.” — Sir Edward Coke (the Attorney-General who prosecuted the eight surviving conspirators).
“Suffer no man and no cause to escape the undying penalty which History has the power to inflict on Wrong.” — Lord Acton.
“History, it is said, revises the verdicts of contemporaries, and constitutes an Appeal Court nearest to the ordeal of heaven.” — Dr. James Martineau.
The book which your characteristic generosity has permitted me to dedicate to you wears a two-fold aspect. For it is as to one portion — and predominantly — an Inquiry taking the form of a discourse with questions and proofs, propositions and demonstrations. While as to another portion — but subordinately — it is a History taking the form of a narrative of events, a relation of mental occurrences, a statement of concrete facts. Now these twain aspects will be found duly to play their respective parts in the course of the subsequent pages, in accordance with a selected order and method.
With most of the allegations of fact and the inferences therefrom, and with many of the assumptions and conclusions which this work contains, your Lordship will agree. From others you will disagree. Whilst in the case of a third class, it may be that you will deem a suspension of judgment to be the part which wisdom and justice alike enjoin.
Speaking for myself, both as a man and as a native of our great County of Yorkshire — whose sons are at once speculative and practical, imaginative and concrete — necessity, in the form of an imperative sense of duty, has been laid upon me, to declare, with unmistakable emphasis and straightforward directness, what I hold to be the Truth governing the subject-matter wherewith I have sought to deal. For Truth is that which is, and its contradictory is error. This line of action I have pursued with the greater determination, inasmuch as daily observation of external events — and, if less frequent, still actual reflection thereupon — has strongly convinced me, even against my will, that much of the “forcible feebleness” and most of the “stable instability” of modern British Statesmen and Politicians have their origin and rise in nothing else than this: — lack of clarity of thought and want of knowledge of those, fixed fundamental intellectual, moral, and political principles which ought to be the sure inheritance of the human Race. And pre-eminently of that portion of the Race which is conscious of a lofty imperial mission. “For evil is wrought by want of thought as well as by want of heart.”
The ancient Stagyrite ranked Poetry above History, because the former bequeaths to Man universal principles of action, whereas the latter bestows upon Man only a relation of individual facts.
But the History of the Gunpowder Treason Plot rises to a higher unity. Because for a man to have read and mastered an impartial record of that deliberate and appalling scheme of “sacrilegious murder,” which happily Destiny first frustrated, and afterwards, through Nemesis, her unerring executioner, signally avenged in the sight of all men, is to have witnessed, with the eye of the historic imagination, a drama that is a poem in action.
Nay, more; it is to have had a personal, experimental realization, through the historic feeling, of what is meant, in the realm of Moral actualities, by the infliction of Retribution, the working out of Expiation, the regaining of Justness, the restoration of Equality between outraged Right and outraging Wrong, and the attaining by the tempestuous, passionate human heart of final tranquillity, rest, and peace.
For one of the greatest recorded Tragedies in the world is the History of the Gunpowder Treason Plot, regard being had to the intellectual and moral ends effected by that history’s recital.
The man who has truly, if indeed but commemoratively, through force of the medium of language merely, taken his part in this great Action, even at a distance of well-nigh three hundred years, will have had his soul cleansed and purified by cleansed and purified pity and terror. Then will he have had that soul soothed and healed. He will have been first abased and then exalted.
For so to act is to weep with a Humanity that weeps. Then with that same Humanity to join in a triumphant pæan of victory that has for its universal and glorious theme this reality of realities which cannot be broken, namely, that Universe — whereof Man, though not the measure, constitutes so large a part — is primevally founded and everlastingly established in Goodness, Being, and Truth.
Trusting that your Lordship will crown your gracious kindness by pardoning the great length of this Introductory Letter,
Tragedy primarily implies imitation of Action by action, not by language, although of course language forms a constituent part.
“Although it is by no means proved to be impossible that this nobleman [Lord Mounteagle] was a guilty confederate in the Plot, the weight of evidence is at present in his favour. It is, however, a most curious State mystery: and I am persuaded that, if the truth is ever discovered, it will not be by State papers, or recorded confessions and examinations. When such expert artists as Bacon and Cecil framed and propagated a State fiction in order to cover a State intrigue, they took care to cut off or divert the channels of history so effectually as to make it hopeless, at the distance of three centuries to trace the truth by means of documents which have ever been in their control. If the mystery should hereafter be unravelled, it will be probably by the discovery of some letters or papers of a domestic nature, which either slumber in private repositories, or remain unnoticed in public collections.” — Letter by David Jardine, Editor of “Criminal Trials,” to Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S., “Archæologia,” pp. 94-95. Dated 30th November, 1840.
The writer of the following work desires respectfully to put forward a modest contribution to the solution of one of the greatest problems known to History.
The problem referred to arises out of that stupendous and far-reaching movement against the Government of King James I. known as the Gunpowder Treason Plot.
This enterprise of cold-blooded, though grievously provoked, massacre was, of a truth, “barbarous and savage beyond the examples of all former ages.” But because the movement had a profoundly — in the Aristotelian sense — political causa causans, therefore it is of perennial interest to governors and governed.
The causa causans, or originating cause, of the Gunpowder Treason Plot, in its ultimate analysis, will be found to involve that problem of problems for Princes, Statesmen, and Peoples all the world over: — How to allow freedom of human action, and yet faithfully to maintain Absolute Truth concerning the Infinite and the Eternal — or that which is believed to be Absolute Truth.
To the intent that the mind of the reader may ever and anon find relief from the stress and strain occasioned by the dry discussion of Evidence and the severe reasoning from necessary or probable philosophical assumptions, the writer has designedly interspersed, both in the Text and in the Notes, matter of a Biographical and Topographical nature, especially such as hath relation to the author’s honoured native County — Yorkshire — and his beloved native City — York.
The writer has thought out his thesis, and has treated the same without fear or favour — limited and conditioned only by a regard for what he knew or supposed, and therefore believed, to be the truth governing the subject-matter under consideration. Nobody can say more, not even the most advanced or emancipated thinker living.[A]
[A] Cf., “The Ethic of Free-thought,” by Professor Karl Pearson. (Adam and Charles Black, 1901.)
If it be demanded of the author why a member of the lower branch of the legal profession hath essayed the unveiling of a mystery that has baffled the learning and ingenuity of men from the days of King James I. — the British Solomon — down to the days of Dr. Samuel Rawson Gardiner, the renowned historian of the early English Stuarts, the author’s answer and plea must be — for it can only be — that by the decrees of Fate, his eyes first saw the light of the sun in a County whose history is an epitome of the history of the English people; and in a City which is an England in miniature.
In conclusion, the writer would be fain to be pardoned in saying that he has not had the advantage of frequenting any British or Foreign University, or other seat of learning — all the education that he can make his humble boast of having been received in Yorkshire Protestant Schools.
The writer’s guide, during the past eighteen months, wherein he hath “voyaged through strange seas of thought alone,”[A] has been “the high white star of Truth. There he has gazed, and THERE aspired.”[B]
Saturday, 26th October, 1901.
[A] Wordsworth.
[B] Matthew Arnold.
| PAGE | |
| INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO THE VISCOUNT HALIFAX | vii |
| PREFACE | xiii |
| PRELUDE | xxxv |
| Three movements against Government of James I. in the year of the Gunpowder Treason Plot (1605) distinct though connected — (1) General wave of insurrectionary feeling on part of Papists by reason of penal laws of Queen Elizabeth — (2) Gunpowder Plot devised by Robert Catesby — (3) Rebellion in Midlands under leadership of Sir Everard Digby — Earl of Salisbury, his spies and decoys, may have fomented first movement but not others — Certainly not projectors of Gunpowder Plot — Traditional story accepted in main outlines. | |
| CHAPTER I. | 1 |
| Reasons given why subordinate conspirator, Francis Tresham, cannot have “discovered” Plot — True principles laid down to guide mind of Inquirer into personnel of (1) Revealing Conspirator, (2) Penman of Letter. | |
| CHAPTER II. | 4 |
| A “division of labour” in beneficent work of “discovering” Plot — Why? — Probabilities of case suggest at least three persons engaged in “swinging round on its axis diabolical Plot” — Whom Revealing conspirator would employ — Persons most likely. | |
| CHAPTER III. | 6 |
| Who was Lord Mounteagle? — Ancestry — Father: Lord Morley — Title, Mounteagle, derived through mother, Honourable Elizabeth Stanley, heiress of William Stanley third Lord Mounteagle — Mother akin to Howards through Leybournes of Westmoreland. | |
| CHAPTER IV. | 9 |
| Lord Mounteagle receives Letter 26th October, 1605, between “six and seven of the clock,” at Hoxton, near London — Opened by Mounteagle — Read by a member of his household, Thomas Ward — Full text of Letter given — 27th October, Ward tells Thomas Winter, a conspirator, that Letter had been received by Mounteagle — Had been taken to Robert Cecil first Earl of Salisbury, Principal Secretary of State — 28th October, Winter repairs to White Webbs by Enfield Chase, ten miles north of Westminster — Informs Catesby that “game was up” — Catesby says “would see further as yet” — Guy Fawkes sent from White Webbs to view cellar under House of Lords — Finds all marks undisturbed — Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, wood, and coal all ready for fatal Fifth — Fawkes returns at night safely — Thomas Winter meets (or is met by) subordinate conspirator, Christopher Wright — Fawkes captured early on Tuesday, November 5th — Christopher Wright announces to Thomas Winter Fawkes’ capture. | |
| CHAPTER V. | 14 |
| In reign of Queen Elizabeth and early part of James I., “the castellated castles, moated halls, and gabled manor-houses” of old England “the sheltering, romantic roof-trees of those who clung” to the ancient Faith — Why? — Henry VIII.’s religious “change” and that of his progeny, King Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth, unlikely to be acceptable “all on a sudden” to bulk of English people — Why? — Penal Legislation against Papists on part of Government — Jesuits in England, 1580 — Campion and Parsons — Three Classes of English Jesuits — Mystics, or Politicians — Mystics and Politicians — The thirteen Gunpowder plotters well-disposed towards Jesuits — But plotters only Politicians. | |
| CHAPTER VI. | 19 |
| Sir William Catesby (father of the arch-conspirator Robert Catesby) and Sir Thomas Tresham (father of Francis Tresham), fine old English gentlemen — Types of best class of Elizabethan Catholic gentry — Both persecuted by Government — Sir Thomas Tresham for more than twenty years pays for Fines equal in our money to £2,080 a year, as a “popish recusant” — Sir Thomas suffers imprisonment for at least twenty-one years after being Star-Chambered — Such transactions account for phenomenon of Gunpowder Treason Plot. | |
| CHAPTER VII. | 21 |
| All thirteen plotters “gentlemen of name and blood” (save Thomas Bates, a respectable serving-man of Catesby) — Names of plotters as follow: — Robert Catesby (Ashby St. Legers, Northamptonshire) — Thomas Winter (Huddington, near Droitwich, Worcestershire) — Thomas Percy (Beverley, E.R. Yorkshire) — John Wright (Plowland, Holderness, E.R. Yorkshire) — Guy (or Guido) Fawkes (York) — Robert Keyes (Drayton, Northamptonshire) — Christopher Wright (Plowland, Holderness, E.R. Yorkshire) — Robert Winter, (Huddington, near Droitwich, Worcestershire) — Ambrose Rookwood (Coldham, Stanningfield, Suffolk) — John Grant (Norbrook, Warwickshire) — Sir Everard Digby (Gothurst, near Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire) — Francis Tresham (Rushton, Northamptonshire) — Four out of conspirators natives of Yorkshire: Thomas Percy, John Wright, Christopher Wright, and Guy (or Guido) Fawkes — Five others indirectly connected with it: Thomas Winter, Robert Winter, John Grant, Robert Keyes, and Ambrose Rookwood — Thomas Winter and Robert Winter, grandsons of distinguished Knight, Sir William Ingleby, of Ripley Castle, near Knaresbrough and Bilton-cum-Harrogate, Nidderdale, Yorkshire — John Grant’s wife, Dorothy Grant, a grand-daughter of said Knight — Robert Keyes, a grandson of Key (or Kay), Esquire, of Woodsome, Almondbury, near Huddersfield. | |
| CHAPTER VIII. (same continued) | 26 |
| CHAPTER IX. | 32 |
| Jesuit Father Edward Oldcorne a native of York — Oswald Tesimond most probably a native of York likewise — Before going to Rheims and Rome Oldcorne studied medicine. | |
| CHAPTER X. | 35 |
| Further analysis of problem as to what conspirator would be likely to “discover” Plot — A subordinate plotter — Introduced late into Plot — One with good moral training at home in childhood — One with trustworthy friend to act as Penman of warning Letter — One with trustworthy friend who could act as Go-between with Government — Christopher Wright, Edward Oldcorne, Thomas Ward. | |
| CHAPTER XI. | 37 |
| Fawkes, in Confession, dated 17th November, 1605, says mine from Percy’s house, adjoining Parliament House, begun 11th December, 1604, by five principal conspirators — Christopher Wright sworn in to help in mining work “soon after” — Text of conspirators’ secret oath. | |
| CHAPTER XII. | 40 |
| Christopher Wright’s family further described — Father: Robert Wright, Esquire, of Plowland, Holderness — Mother: Ursula Rudston, of Rudstons, Lords of Hayton, near Pocklington — Mother akin to Mallories, of Studley Royal, near Ripon — Wrights akin to Wards, of Mulwith, Newby, and Givendale, near Ripon, likewise — Christopher Wright’s wife, Margaret Wright, possibly née Margaret Ward, of the Wards, of Mulwith. | |
| CHAPTER XIII. | 45 |
| Edward Oldcorne described — A native of St. Sampson’s Parish, York — A student of medicine — Goes to Rheims and Rome for higher studies — Ordained Priest — Joins Society of Jesus — In 1588 lands in England — Stationed by Father Henry Garnet, chief of Jesuits in England, at Hindlip Hall, four miles from Worcester — Hindlip Hall home of Thomas Abington, Esquire, and the Honourable Mary (Parker) Abington, daughter of the Lord Morley and sister to the Lord Mounteagle — Oldcorne’s extraordinary influence in Worcestershire — Styled “the Apostle of Worcestershire” — A man of mental equipoise. | |
| CHAPTER XIV. | 48 |
| “The Letter” critically examined. | |
| CHAPTER XV. | 54 |
| Further critical examination of “the Letter.” | |
| CHAPTER XVI. | 56 |
| Mounteagle “knew there was a Letter to come to him before it came” — Who was his “Secretary,” Thomas Ward? — Almost certainly brother-in-law to Christopher Wright — Proofs of this assertion — Entry of marriage in St. Michael-le-Belfrey’s Church, York, of a “Thomas Warde of Mulwaith, in the p’ishe of Rippon, and M’rgery Slater, 29th May, 1579” — Entry of burial of “Marjory wife of Thomas Warde of Mulwith,” in Register at Ripon Minster, about eleven years after, 20th May, 1590. | |
| CHAPTER XVII. | 59 |
| Entry of christening of Edward, son of Christopher Wright, of Bondgate, Ripon, in Ripon Minster Registers, 6th October, 1589 — Of Eliza, daughter of Christopher Wright, of Newbie, 23rd July, 1594 — Of Francis, son of Christopher Wright, of Newbie, 12th July, 1596 — Of Marmaduke, son of Christopher Wright, of Skelton, 3rd February, 1601 — Thomas Warde, of “Mulwaith,” in 1579 — Thomas Warde, of “Mulwith,” in 1590 — Inference of propinquity between Christopher Wright and Thomas Warde, at least between years 1589 and 1590 inclusive — Thomas Warde probably in diplomatic service of Queen Elizabeth, under Sir Francis Walsingham — Probably sent on mission to Low Countries in 1585. | |
| CHAPTER XVIII. | 63 |
| Proof that William Ward, a son of Marmaduke Ward, of Newby, had an uncle who lived at Court — Inference that this was Thomas Ward, member of household of Lord Mounteagle. | |
| CHAPTER XIX. | 68 |
| Inference drawn that Christopher Wright, Thomas Warde, and Lord Mounteagle were personally acquainted. | |
| CHAPTER XX. | 70 |
| Marmaduke Ward at Lapworth, in Warwickshire — Arrested by Government — Released — Inference that he had a powerful friend at Court. | |
| CHAPTER XXI. | 74 |
| Suggested proof of how Mounteagle came to be associated with Thomas Ward — Biographical and Topographical evidence adduced in support. | |
| CHAPTER XXII. (same continued) | 76 |
| CHAPTER XXIII. (same further continued) | 81 |
| CHAPTER XXIV. | 85 |
| Letter conveyed to Hoxton on Saturday evening, 26th October, 1605, between six and seven of the clock, in pursuance of pre-arrangement — Suggested that pre-arrangement was made by Thomas Ward. | |
| CHAPTER XXV. | 87 |
| Thomas Ward sees Thomas Winter, one of the chief conspirators — Suggested inference that Christopher Wright had bidden Thomas Ward so to do — In order to compass flight of rest of conspirators. | |
| CHAPTER XXVI. | 90 |
| Thomas Winter interviews Francis Tresham, one of subordinate conspirators, on Saturday night, 2nd November, one week after delivery of Letter to Lord Mounteagle. | |
| CHAPTER XXVII. | 92 |
| Tresham tells Winter that Government knew of existence of the mine — How had Government such knowledge? — Suggested concatenation of evidence that Christopher Wright told fact to Thomas Ward (or Warde); Ward to Lord Mounteagle; Mounteagle to Francis Tresham; Tresham to Thomas Winter. | |
| CHAPTER XXVIII. | 94 |
| Earl of Suffolk (Lord Chamberlain) accompanied by Lord Mounteagle visits cellar under House of Lords, where thirty-six barrels of gunpowder are stored — They light upon Guy (or Guido) Fawkes. | |
| CHAPTER XXIX. | 96 |
| Quotation from “King’s Book” — Version of Gunpowder Plot put forth by “lawful authority” — Showing procedure of Earl of Suffolk and Lord Mounteagle on search of cellar under House of Lords, Monday, 4th November — Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder stored ready for firing by Fawkes on fatal Fifth. | |
| CHAPTER XXX. | 99 |
| Quotation from the “Hatfield MSS.,” giving account of meeting at Fremland, Essex, in July, 1605 — Present thereat (amongst others) Lord Mounteagle, his brother-in-law Francis Tresham, and Father Henry Garnet, then Superior of English Jesuits — Account of Sir Edmund Baynham — Despatched in September on double mission to Pope of Rome — Baynham described — A Gloucestershire Roman Catholic gentleman — Belike of the swashbuckler type. | |
| CHAPTER XXXI. | 102 |
| Christopher Wright. | |
| CHAPTER XXXII. | 104 |
| Marmaduke Ward, of Newbie (or Newby), near Ripon, comes up to Lapworth, in Warwickshire — Lapworth, the birthplace of arch-conspirator Robert Catesby — One of the large Catesby Warwickshire possessions — In May, 1605, Lapworth let by Catesby to John Wright — Marmaduke Ward, brother-in-law to John Wright and Christopher Wright, arrives at Lapworth about 24th October, 1605 — Suggestion that Marmaduke Ward was sent for by Thomas Ward — In order, haply, to prevail upon brothers Wright to abandon scheme of insurrectionary stir in Midlands. | |
| CHAPTER XXXIII. | 107 |
| What objections against hypothesis that Christopher Wright was Revealing conspirator? — What objections against hypothesis that Father Edward Oldcorne was Penman of Letter? — Evidence of one William Handy, serving-man to Sir Everard Digby, Knt., quoted, weighed, and disposed of. | |
| CHAPTER XXXIV. | 110 |
| Evidence of a certain Dr. Williams, of reign of Charles II., author of pamphlet purporting to be History of the Gunpowder Treason Plot, quoted. | |
| CHAPTER XXXV. | 112 |
| Probable untrustworthiness of Dr. Williams’ reported statement manifested by convincing argument — Singular story that Letter was penned by the Honourable Anne Vaux, one of the daughters of William Lord Vaux of Harrowden — Story told, examined, and disposed of. | |
| CHAPTER XXXVI. | 116 |
| Dr. Williams’ reported statement a faint adumbration of truth — Why? — Because Williams’ report tends to corroborate evidence that Letter emanated from Hindlip Hall — Suggestion made as to whence and how Williams’ report had its origin — The Lady of Hindlip may have guessed truth, through her womanly perspicacity. | |
| CHAPTER XXXVII. | 120 |
| Evidence, deductions, and suggestions finally considered tending to show that Christopher Wright after delivery of Letter exhibited consciousness of having revealed Plot. | |
| CHAPTER XXXVIII. | 124 |
| Old Dutch print, published immediately after detection of Plot (reprinted in “Connoisseur” for November, 1901), shows Christopher Wright in act of engaging in earnest discourse with arch-conspirator Robert Catesby — Slightly tends to confirm tradition that (1) Christopher Wright first ascertained that Plot was discovered, and that (2) Christopher Wright counselled that “each conspirator should betake himself to flight in a different direction from any of his companions.” | |
| CHAPTER XXXIX. | 126 |
| Evidence of William Kyddall — Kyddall accompanies Christopher Wright from Lapworth (twenty miles from Hindlip Hall) to London, on Monday, 28th October — Arrive in London, on Wednesday, 30th — Evidence of Mistress Dorathie Robinson, Christopher Wright’s London landlady, as to padlocked hampers, evidently containing fresh gunpowder. | |
| CHAPTER XL. | 131 |
| Conspirators are “shriven” and “houselled” at Huddington by Jesuit Father Nicholas Hart — Ambrose Rookwood — Rookwood “absolved” by the Jesuit priest “without remark” — Reason why suggested. | |
| CHAPTER XLI. (same continued) | 134 |
| CHAPTER XLII. | 136 |
| Robert Cecil first Earl of Salisbury, Principal Secretary of State, instructs Sir Edward Coke, Attorney-General, to disclaim that any of these wrote Letter — Reason why suggested. | |
| CHAPTER XLIII. | 140 |
| Archbishop Usher reported divers times to have said “that if Papists knew what he knew, the blame of the Gunpowder Treason would not lie on them” — Suggested explanation of the oracular words — Second Earl of Salisbury reported to have confessed that the Gunpowder Plot was “his father’s contrivance” — Suggested explanation of this strange report. | |
| CHAPTER XLIV. | 144 |
| Critical examination of the Letter renewed — Writer must have regarded Plot as a scheme defecated of criminous quality — Reason why. | |
| CHAPTER XLV. | 148 |
| Coughton Hall (now Coughton Court), in Warwickshire, ancestral home of grand old English Roman Catholic family of Throckmorton — Father Henry Garnet, Superior of English Jesuits, harboured here from 29th October, 1605, to 16th December, 1605 — Father Oswald Tesimond at Coughton on Wednesday, 6th November — Bates sent with letters from Catesby and Sir Everard Digby to Father Garnet and Lady Digby — Bates despatched from Norbrook, in Warwickshire — Arrives at Coughton — Fathers Garnet and Tesimond have conference for half-an-hour — Garnet gives leave to Tesimond to proceed to Huddington, in Worcestershire — Whither conspirators and rebels were come, early on Wednesday, 6th November — Tesimond arrives at Huddington — Psycho-electrical will force of Catesby works on mind of Tesimond — Tesimond inspired with rebellious ardour against Government — Dashes on to Hindlip, within five miles of Huddington. | |
| CHAPTER XLVI. | 152 |
| Tesimond arrives at Hindlip — Urges the Master of Hindlip and Father Oldcorne to join rebels — Master of Hindlip and Father Oldcorne decline — Anger kindled in breast of Tesimond — Rides off towards Lancashire in hope of rousing to arms dwellers in that Catholic county. | |
| CHAPTER XLVII. | 154 |
| Who and what was Father Henry Garnet? — A native of Nottingham (1555) — A scholar of Winchester School — Joins Jesuit Novitiate in Rome (1575) — Problem of Garnet’s moral and legal guilt (or otherwise) impartially discussed. | |
| CHAPTER XLVIII. (same continued) | 157 |
| CHAPTER XLIX. | 160 |
| At the end of August, 1605, Garnet leaves London for Gothurst — Famous pilgrimage to St. Winifred’s Well, Flintshire, North Wales, about 5th September, made from Gothurst — Lady Digby, Ambrose Rookwood and his wife, the Honourable Anne Vaux, and upwards of thirty others, join the pilgrim-band — Father Garnet and Father Percy, chaplain to Sir Everard Digby, lead the cavalcade — Away about a fortnight. | |
| CHAPTER L. | 165 |
| Pilgrims return from St. Winifred’s Well to Gothurst — A fortnight before Michaelmas (11th October, old style) — Father Garnet at Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire, — Ancestral home of Edward Lord Vaux of Harrowden. | |
| CHAPTER LI. | 167 |
| 4th October, 1605, Father Garnet at Great Harrowden — Pens a long letter to Father Parsons in Rome. | |
| CHAPTER LII. | 169 |
| 21st October, Father Garnet at Gothurst (most probably) — Pens a short post scriptum to letter of 4th October — Blots out three lines of letter — Assigns as cause therefor “FOR REASON OF A FRIEND’S STAY IN THE WAY” — Who was this friend? | |
| CHAPTER LIII. (Chapters XLV. and XLVI. with more particularity) | 172 |
| Sir Everard Digby rents Coughton, near Alcester, Warwickshire — Sir Everard to be in command of Midland Rising against Government — Many Catholic gentlemen from Midland counties expected to rebel by reason of galling anti-Catholic persecution — Sir Everard Digby, on Sunday, 3rd November, rides to Dunchurch, near Rugby, in Warwickshire — Robert Winter, of Huddington, joined by Stephen Littleton, of Holbeach, Staffordshire, also by latter’s cousin, Humphrey Littleton — Tuesday, November 5th, Cousins Littleton, Sir Robert Digby (Coleshill), younger Acton (Ribbesford), and many others, join “hunting match” on Dunsmore Heath — Some of these gentlemen with leader, Sir Everard Digby, await arrival of Catesby and the rest of conspirators in an Inn at Dunchurch — At six of the clock in evening of Tuesday, fatal Fifth, in wild headlong flight from London, Catesby, Percy, two Wrights, and Ambrose Rookwood rush into ancient mansion-house of Catesbies at Ashby St. Legers, Northamptonshire — Announce capture of Fawkes — Hold short council of war — Snatch up weapons of warfare — North-westwards that November night — Arrive at Dunchurch Inn — Digby told of capture of Fawkes — Many Catholic gentlemen return to their homes — Plotters and rebel-allies plunge into the darkness — Make for “Shakespeare’s country” — Arrive at Warwick by three of the clock on Wednesday morning — From stables near Warwick Castle take fresh horses, leaving their own steeds in exchange therefor — Dash on towards John Grant’s “moated grange,” Norbrook, Snitterfield (where Shakespeare’s mother held property) — At Norbrook “take bite and sup” — Rest their fatigued limbs awhile — On saddle-back once more — This time bound for Huddington, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, the seat of Robert Winter — Arrive there probably about twelve o’clock noon of Wednesday (some authorities say two o’clock in the afternoon) — Tesimond comes from Coughton to Huddington — Catesby hails Tesimond with joy — Tesimond proceeds to Hindlip Hall — On Thursday morning, at about three of the clock, all company at Huddington “assist” at Mass offered by Father Nicholas Hart, a Jesuit from Great Harrowden — Whole company “shriven and houselled” — Before daybreak all on march again north-westwards — Halt at Whewell Grange, seat of the Lord Windsor — There help themselves to large store of arms and armour — Plotters and rebels then numbered about sixty all told — Cross the River Stour, in flood — A cart of gunpowder rendered “dank” in crossing — Proceed to Holbeach House, in Staffordshire — Mansion-house of Stephen Littleton, Esquire, a Roman Catholic gentleman of ancient lineage. | |
| CHAPTER LIV. | 177 |
| High Sheriffs of Warwickshire and Worcestershire with posse comitatus in pursuit — Plotters and rebels arrive at Holbeach (near Stourbridge) at ten of the clock on Thursday night — Early Friday morning explosion of drying gunpowder at Holbeach — Catesby, Rookwood, and Grant burnt — Catesby unnerved — Arch-conspirator and others betake themselves to prayers — “Litanies and such like” — Make an hour’s “meditation” — About eleven of the clock on Friday, 8th November, Sheriff of Worcestershire and “hue and cry” surround Holbeach — Siege laid thereto — Thomas Winter disabled by an arrow from crossbow — Catesby and Percy, standing sword in hand, shot by one musket — Catesby expires — John Wright wounded unto death — Christopher Wright mortally wounded — Percy grievously wounded — Dies a day or two afterwards — Ambrose Rookwood wounded — Sir Everard Digby apprehended — Rest taken prisoners, except Stephen Littleton and Robert Winter, who escape. | |
| CHAPTER LV. | 181 |
| Father Henry Garnet changes his mind — Does not go up to London — But from Gothurst, in Buckinghamshire, goes down to Coughton, in Warwickshire, on the 29th October — All Saints’ Day (November 1st) at Coughton Hall (now Coughton Court) — Mass “offered” by Father Garnet. | |
| CHAPTER LVI. | 185 |
| Stephen Littleton, the Master of Holbeach, and Robert Winter, the Master of Huddington, harboured at Rowley Regis, in Staffordshire, by a tenant of Humphrey Littleton, Esquire, of Hagley, Worcestershire, a cousin to Stephen Littleton — Humphrey Littleton harbours the two fugitives from justice at Hagley House, home of his sister-in-law, Mrs. John Littleton — Both fugitives betrayed by man-cook at Hagley — Delivered over to the officers of the law and conveyed to the Tower of London. | |
| CHAPTER LVII. | 188 |
| Humphrey Littleton consults Father Edward Oldcorne, the Jesuit, respecting the moral rightness or wrongness of the Gunpowder Plot — Father Oldcorne’s Reply to Littleton in extenso. | |
| CHAPTER LVIII. | 190 |
| Reply analyzed — Divisible into two distinct parts — First part: gives an answer sounding in abstract truth alone, in other words, leaves Littleton in abstracto — Second part: disclaims knowledge of end plotters had in view and means they had recourse to. | |
| CHAPTER LIX. | 193 |
| Metaphysical Argument grounded on Oldcorne’s Reply to Humphrey Littleton — Argument seeks to demonstrate that from tenour and purport of Oldcorne’s Reply, the Jesuit must have had a special interior knowledge of the Plot. | |
| CHAPTER LX. (same continued) | 195 |
| CHAPTER LXI. (same continued) | 198 |
| CHAPTER LXII. (same continued) | 200 |
| CHAPTER LXIII. (same continued) | 201 |
| CHAPTER LXIV. (same continued) | 204 |
| CHAPTER LXV. (same continued) | 208 |
| CHAPTER LXVI. (same continued) | 210 |
| CHAPTER LXVII. (same continued) | 212 |
| CHAPTER LXVIII. (same continued) | 215 |
| CHAPTER LXIX. (same continued) | 220 |
| CHAPTER LXX. | 222 |
| Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne captured at Hindlip Hall the last week of January, 1605-6 — Conveyed to the Tower of London — Father Oldcorne “racked five times, and once with the greatest severity for several hours” — On 7th April, 1606, at Redhill, near Worcester, Father Edward Oldcorne, Priest and Jesuit, hanged, drawn, and quartered as a traitor — Brother Ralph Ashley, his servant, hanged at the same time and place. | |
| CHAPTER LXXI. | 224 |
| True inferences to be drawn from Father Oldcorne’s “last dying speech and confession.” | |
| CHAPTER LXXII. | 227 |
| Edward Oldcorne — Ralph Ashley. | |
| CHAPTER LXXIII. | 229 |
| Thomas Ward. | |
| RECAPITULATION OF PROOFS, ARGUMENTS, AND CONCLUSIONS. | 233 |
| SUPPLEMENTA. | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM I. | 239 |
| Guy Fawkes. | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM II. | 260 |
| Letter of Lord Bishop of Worcester (Dr. Bilson), to Sir Robert Cecil, as to Diocese of Worcester. | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM III. | 264 |
| Thomas Ward (or Warde). | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM IV. | 271 |
| Mulwith, near Ripon. | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM V. | 279 |
| Plowland, Holderness. | |
| SUPPLEMENTUM VI. | 287 |
| Equivocation. Letter of the Rev. George Canning, S.J., Professor of Ethics, St. Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst. | |
| APPENDICES. | |
| APPENDIX A | 295 |
| Circumstantial Evidence defined. (a) Evidence generally: (by Mr. Frank Pick, York). | |
| APPENDIX B | 299 |
| Discrepancy as to date when immaterial (per Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, temp. Charles II.). | |
| APPENDIX C | 300 |
| List of those apprehended for Plot in Warwickshire, &c. (a) List of those frequenting Clopton (or Clapton) Hall, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. | |
| APPENDIX D | 304 |
| Richard Browne (servant to Christopher Wright), his evidence. | |
| APPENDIX E | 306 |
| William Grantham (servant to Hewett, Hatter), his evidence. | |
| APPENDIX F | 307 |
| Robert Rookes (servant to Ambrose Rookwood), his evidence. | |
| APPENDIX G | 308 |
| John Cradock (Cutler), his evidence. | |
| APPENDIX H | 310 |
| Lord Chief Justice Popham’s statement as to Christopher Wright. | |
| APPENDIX I | 312 |
| Sir Richard Verney, Knt., John Ferrers, William Combe, Bart. Hales (Warwickshire Justices): Joint Statement to Earl of Salisbury, as to Mrs. John Grant and Mrs. Thomas Percy. | |
| APPENDIX J | 313 |
| Paris (boatman), his evidence, as to taking Guy Fawkes to Gravelines, France, during “vacation,” 1605. | |
| APPENDIX K | 314 |
| Miss Emma M. Walford, her opinion as to resemblance between Edward Oldcorne’s original Declaration of 12th March, 1605-6, and original Letter to Lord Mounteagle (both in Record Office, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.). | |
| APPENDIX L | 315 |
| Professor Bertram C. A. Windle, M.D., F.R.S., his opinion as to distances between certain localities in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Northamptonshire, and Buckinghamshire. | |
| APPENDIX M | 318 |
| Letter of Lieut.-Colonel Carmichael as to same. | |
| APPENDIX N | 319 |
| Order of Queen Elizabeth in Council, dated 31st December, 1582, addressed to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of York. | |
| NOTE (as to authenticity of Thomas Winter’s Confession) | 323 |
| NOTES (1-180) | 327 |
| FINIS | 411 |
The author regrets to have to request his indulgent readers to be kind enough to make the following corrections [Transcriber’s Note: These have been applied.]: —