The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter, Being a Proof, with Moral Certitude, of the Authorship of the Document Together with Some Account of the Whole Thirteen Gunpowder Conspirators, Including Guy Fawkes

Ther hath bine at Clapton[A] w^{th} M^{r} Ambrous Rucwod Mr. Jhon Grant ther is with m^{es} Rucwood M^{es} Ceo (?) m^{es} munson and others and to of his britherin m^{r} Wintor...

A few final words as to Thomas Ward (or Warde), who was, I hold, no less than Edward Oldcorne and his Penitent, the joint arbiter of destinies and the controller of fates.

Thomas Winter came of a Worcestershire family. His father, George Winter (or Wintour), had married Jane Ingleby, the daughter of Sir William Ingleby, a Yorkshire knight of histo...

For in Foley’s “_Records_”[70] we are told that Father George Ward, alias Ingleby, was a son of Marmaduke Ward, Esquire, of Newby, near Ripon, by his wife Ursula Wright.[A] And...

The first thing to be noted is that no reprint that I have seen of the famous Letter, whether in ancient or modern continuous Relations of the Gunpowder Plot, is strictly correc...

We now come to the second and latter part of Father Oldcorne’s Declaration to Humphrey Littleton, from the whole of which Declaration Littleton drew the conclusion that Oldcorne...

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and during the earlier part of the reign of King James I., almost all those castellated castles, moated halls, and gabled manor-houses which...

“The examinacon of William Kyddall of Elsam in the Countie of Lincolne s^{r}vant to Mr. Robert Turrett of Kettleby[A] in the said Com. taken the viii^{th} daie of November 1605...

He was the third son of Robert Wright and Ursula his wife, who was the daughter of Nicholas Rudston, Esquire (of the Rudstons, Lords of Hayton,[A] near Pocklington, in the East...

Sir Everard Digby had rented Coughton, near Alcester, in Warwickshire, from Thomas Throckmorton, Esquire, as a base for the warlike operations, which were to be conducted in the...

Lastly, it should be remembered, in endeavouring to trace out by inevitable inference the nature of the tie or ties, manifestly very strong, that bound Mounteagle to Marmaduke W...

Subsequently, there were added to these five——Robert Keyes, Christopher Wright (a younger brother of John Wright), and lastly Robert Winter (an elder brother of Thomas Winter),[...

We know that he was at Gothurst when Catesby was there, on Tuesday, the 22nd of October, one day after the date of the _post scriptum_ mentioned in the last chapter. Probably th...

Now, _partial truth_, as has been affirmed already, _is not, in its proportion, less true than the full orb of truth_.[A] And many are the times and many are the circumstances i...

At the beginning of the month of September, 1605, Father Garnet was at Gothurst,[A] three miles from Newport Pagnell, in the County of Buckinghamshire, and about the 5th of Sept...

At Holbeach they prepared to make their last stand. And alack! never more were the brothers John and Christopher Wright destined to behold Lapworth, Twigmore, Ripon, Skelton, Ne...

On Saturday, the 26th of October, ten days before the intended meeting of Parliament,[A] Lord Mounteagle, we are told, unexpectedly and without any apparent reason or previous n...

Again: the primary instinct of self-preservation alone would have assuredly impelled the bravest of the brave amongst the nine malefactors, including Tresham, who were incarcera...

For we have now to consider what Evidence there is tending to prove that _subsequent_ to the penning of the Letter by Father Edward Oldcorne, he was _conscious_ of having perfor...

Now, if Dr. Williams solemnly had said that he knew Mrs. Abington personally, and that she (Mrs. Abington) had told him (Williams) with her own lips that she had writ the Letter...

That is to say, Garnet had a great suspicion, tantamount to a general knowledge, that Catesby had in his head some bloody and desperate enterprise of massacre, the object whereo...

Jardine gives in his “_Criminal Trials_”[133] a certain Letter of Instructions to Sir Edward Coke,[134] the Attorney-General who conducted the prosecution of the surviving Gunpo...

Again; I think that probably Thomas Ward had either at Hindlip, Evesham or elsewhere at least one interview with the great Jesuit himself——“the gradely Jesuit,” as the good, sim...

Having dealt with the _preliminary_ Evidence, we now come to the discussion of the _main_ Evidence which tends to show that _subsequent_ to the penning of the Letter Father Edwa...

For at Hindlip Hall, near the City of Worcester, there had dwelt for the past sixteen years one who was not only the trusted spiritual guide of Thomas Abington, Esquire, and the...

Lastly, there is proof, indirect indeed but very telling, that Thomas Warde must have been closely akin to Marmaduke Warde, and that both must have been related to Lord Mounteagle.

Now we know that Marmaduke Warde was of Mulwaith (or Mulwith) in the year 1585. For the “_Life_” of his daughter Mary expressly states that she was born at Mulwith in that year....

Let us finally consider the Evidence and the deductions and suggestions therefrom which tend to prove that _subsequent_ to the dictating of the Letter by the contrite, repentant...

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. T...

William Parker,[3] the son and heir of Lord Morley, whose barony had been created by King Edward I. in 1299, was called to the House of Lords as the fourth Baron Mounteagle, in...

Now, in the first place, it is to be noticed that Father Oldcorne made the special disclaimer of ever having had the least knowledge of the Plot only _after being asked again ab...

Now, regard being had to the fact that “there is seldom smoke except there be, at least, some little fire, the question arises: Is it possible to account, on rational grounds, f...

Lady Mary Brandon,[A] the eldest daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, was the first wife of Thomas second Lord Mounteagle, whose second wife was Ellen Leybourne (_née_ Preston), the...

Lingard says the conspirators suspected that Tresham had sent the Letter, and that there was a “secret understanding between him and Lord Mounteagle,[A] _or at least the gentlem...

One is from the King’s Book, giving an account of the procedure followed by the Earl of Suffolk the Lord Chamberlain, and the Lord Mounteagle, the champion, protector, and hero...

We have now considered the Evidence leading up to the commission of the respective acts that this Inquiry, at an earlier part, has attributed severally to Christopher Wright and...

Hence may we say, of a surety, has it been proved that Edward Oldcorne, Priest and Jesuit, used words which imply that, as a fact, he viewed the Plot _ante factum_, before the f...

And why? Because, I respectfully submit, those nine words show that between the 4th day of October, 1605, _and_ the 21st day of October, Garnet had received from somewhere _inte...

Having then thus established the point that if Christopher Wright and his conjectured Penman of the Letter wished to put themselves into communication with the King’s Government...

Before we well-nigh finally take our leave of Christopher Wright, I should like to bring before my readers two pieces of Evidence, from each of which, at any rate, may be drawn...

Father Henry Garnet, the chief of the English Jesuits, left London at the end of August, 1605,[154] and proceeded towards Gothurst (now Gayhurst), in the Parish of Tyringham, th...

It could be only by dint of a _two-fold knowledge_, a two-fold, warranting, justifying, vindicating knowledge, which this Priest and Jesuit held stored-up deep down within the d...

Now, among the first things that must strike the reader of the list of actors in the Gunpowder tragedy is the large number that were, directly or indirectly, connected with the...

One of the unsolved problems of English History is the question: “Who wrote the Letter to the Lord Mounteagle?” surely, one of the most momentous documents ever penned by the ha...

The pilgrim-band numbered about thirty souls, and included Ambrose Rookwood and his wife in addition to those before mentioned. Ambrose Rookwood appears to have been sworn in as...

(1) Now was Christopher Wright a subordinate conspirator, introduced late into the conspiracy? It is plain that he was, from “_Thomas Winter’s Confession_,” where he says: “Abou...

But it may be objected that instead of assuming that Father Oldcorne was a man not only of mental keenness but also of moral uprightness, and proceeding forthwith to build an ar...

At this meeting, in answer to a question, “Were Catholics able to make their part good by arms against the King?”——Mounteagle replied, “If ever they were, they are able now;” an...

Now, regard being had to the fact that this kneeling young Penitent was, with his own lips, avowing the commission in _desire and thought_ of “murder most foul as at the best it...

Soon after Catesby, Rookwood, and Grant had been injured by the exploded gunpowder at Holbeach House (as has been already mentioned in Chapter LIV.), Robert Winter, the Master o...

Moreover, the fact that the footman was in the street at about seven of the clock when the missive was given to him _is strongly suggestive of the fact that he had been anxiousl...

But, it may be asked, is there any Evidence, however remote, to show how it is possible that Mounteagle may have been brought into personal contact with his morally certain kins...

Father Edward Oldcorne was racked in the Tower of London, “five times, and once with the utmost severity for several hours,”[172] in order that, haply, information might be extr...

To every philosophical thinker who takes the trouble to ponder the matter it must be evident that the ethical principles enunciated in the first part of the Declaration, given _...

Now, the contention is this: That regard being had to the extraordinary heinousness of the Gunpowder Plot, in point of underhand stealthiness and secrecy as well as of deliberat...

Now, to my mind, it is a proposition so plain as not to require arguing, that there must have been at least _two_ persons engaged in the two-fold transaction of dictating the Le...

Edward Oldcorne might have, perchance, saved his life had he told his lawful Sovereign that he had been (_Deo juvante_) a joint efficient cause of that Sovereign’s temporal salv...

Now, as somewhat slightly confirming this statement of Lathbury, is the fact that in an old print published soon after the discovery of the Plot, which shows the conspirators Ca...

Now, when deep within the depths of the moral being of Christopher Wright there first arose that tender day-spring, a realization of guilt and shame: that crimsoned dawn, a sens...

What objection, then, can be brought against the hypothesis that Father Edward Oldcorne, Priest and Jesuit, and native of the City of York, was the Penman of this most momentous...

On the 4th of October, Father Garnet wrote a long letter to Father Parsons in Rome, who was then virtually the ruler of the Catholics of England, though that sturdy Yorkshireman...

Whyneard, keeper of the King’s wardrobe, declared to the two noble searchers that Thomas Percy had hired the house and part of the cellar or vault under the same, and that “the...

Now, this conclusion leads inevitably to the further conclusion that Edward Oldcorne must have had latent within him, deep down within the depths of his conscious being, a parti...

“Mr. Humfrey Litleton[A] telling me that after Mr. Catesbie saw him self and others of his Companie burnt w^{th} powder, and the rest of the compnie readie to fly from him, that...

Now, according to the laws which govern human nature, a subordinate conspirator, introduced late into the conspiracy, whose early training was such as to lead him, on reflection...

Now, in the first part of his Declaration, Father Oldcorne uttered concerning the Gunpowder Plot a proposition which expressed partial truth alone. Because he expressed truth in...

In the King’s Book, after describing Salisbury’s first visit to James in “the privie gallerie” of Whitehall Palace, it is stated that it was arranged that there should be anothe...

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...

Again; to all those that are “knowing” enough, the facts of this woeful tragedy “observingly” to “distil out,” the form and substance of this document of the 12th March, 1605-6,...

Now, Oldcorne, being a man as good as he was clever, and as clever as he was good, manifests from the inherent nature of his answer to Humphrey Littleton a sense, a consciousnes...

Now, I maintain that there is Evidence, from a very unexpected quarter, that Thomas Ward had received from the revealing plotter a complete disclosure of every one of the materi...

It hath been truly observed by one of the most knowing and candid of modern students of Elizabethan biographical literature, that Sir William Catesby, the father of the arch-gun...

Now, in this calm and dignified demeanour of Oldcorne, at Hindlip, which evidently so annoyed, nay, exasperated——because it arrested and thwarted——his younger brother Jesuit (bo...

S^{r} Everard Digby, Knight Rob^{t} Winter John Winter John Grant Tho: Percy Tho: Winter Rob^{t} Acton Henry Morgan Christopher Litleton Lodwicke Grant, who was taken the _9 of...

But again, seeing that we know that a certain Thomas Ward lived at Court, by reason of his being a member of the household of Lord Mounteagle, who had been admitted to Court eve...

I mean the sentence, “I would aduyse yowe as yowe _tender_ your lyf to deuys some excuse to _shift off_ youer attendance at this parleament,” meaning thereby, “I would advise yo...

But, it may be plausibly objected, if it were of such dangerous tendency _indiscriminately_ to give utterance to bare, abstract, moral principles only, how came it to pass, then...

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, No...

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...

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 nig...

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...

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 Newbi...

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 t...

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——I...

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 Wa...

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 Elizab...

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...

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,...

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 gre...

Old Dutch print, published immediately after detection of Plot (reprinted in “_Connoisseur_” for November, 1901), shows Christopher Wright in act of engaging in earnest discours...

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...

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 T...

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...

Christopher Wright’s family further described——Father: Robert Wright, Esquire, of Plowland, Holderness——Mother: Ursula Rudston, of Rudstons, Lords of Hayton, near Pocklington——M...

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 o...

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 Hou...

Dr. Williams’ reported statement a faint adumbration of truth—— Why?——Because Williams’ report tends to corroborate evidence that Letter _emanated_ from Hindlip Hall——Suggestion...

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 Wedne...

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——...

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’...

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 t...

Fawkes, in Confession, dated 17th November, 1605, says mine from Percy’s house, adjoining Parliament House, begun 11th December, 1604, by five principal conspirators——Christophe...

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 d...

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 R...

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: disc...

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 Pl...

What _objections_ against hypothesis that Christopher Wright was Revealing conspirator?——What _objections_ against hypothesis that Father Edward Oldcorne was Penman of Letter?——...

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...

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 ha...

Who was Lord Mounteagle?——Ancestry——Father: Lord Morley——Title, Mounteagle, derived through mother, Honourable Elizabeth Stanley, heiress of William Stanley third Lord Mounteagl...

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 o...

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.

Pilgrims return from St. Winifred’s Well to Gothurst——A fortnight before Michaelmas (11th October, old style)——Father Garnet at Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire,——Ancestral hom...