The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 14

(3) Christopher Wright was possibly being harboured by Thomas Ward in or near Lord Mounteagle's town-house in the Strand during a part of Monday night, the 4th of November, and during the early hours of Tuesday, the 5th.

Or, if Christopher Wright were not being so harboured, then it is almost certain he must have been taking such brief repose as he did take at the inn known by the name of "the Mayden heade in St. Gyles."[A] For there is evidence to prove that this conspirator's horse was being stabled at that hostelry in the afternoon of Monday, the 4th of November.

[Footnote A: The Strand is not far from the Church of St.

Giles-in-the-Fields. This well-known church has now two district churches, Christ Church, Endell Street, and Holy Trinity, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

(Communicated by Mr. J. A. Nicholson, Solicitor, York.) In 1891 the population of St. Giles's Parish was 15,281.]

This we know from the testimony of William Grantham, servant to Joseph Hewett, deposed to on the 5th of November, 1605,[B] taken before Sir John Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England.

[Footnote B: See Appendix.]

Moreover, the Lord Chief Justice Popham[C] reported to Lord Salisbury on the 5th of November as follows: "Christopher Wright, as I thyncke, lay this last night in St. Gyles."--"_Gunpowder Plot Book_," Part I., No. 10.

[Footnote C: Of the Leyborne-Pophams, of Littlecote, Co. Wilts.]

(4) Again; from the following pa.s.sage in "_Thomas Winter's Confession_" it is evident that Christopher Wright, at a very early hour in the morning of Tuesday, November 5th, must have been _in very close proximity to Mounteagle's residence_, in order to ascertain so accurately--either directly, through the evidence of his own senses, or indirectly, through the evidence of the senses of some other person (presumably of Thomas Ward)--what _there_ took place a few hours after Fawkes's midnight apprehension by Sir Thomas Knevet.

Thomas Winter says:--

"About five o'clock being Tuesday came the younger Wright to my chamber and told me that, a n.o.bleman[A] called the Lord Mounteagle, saying, 'Rise and come along to Ess.e.x House, for I am going to call up my Lord of Northumberland,' saying withal 'the matter is discovered.'

[Footnote A: It was Edward Somerset Earl of Worcester, Master of the Horse, I believe, an ancestor, lineal or collateral, of the Duke of Beaufort. Worcester was a Catholic.]

"'Go back, Mr. Wright,' quoth I, 'and learn what you can at Ess.e.x Gate.'

"Shortly he returned and said, 'Surely all is lost,[123] for Leyton is got on horseback at Ess.e.x door, and as he parted, he asked if their Lords.h.i.+ps would have any more with him, and being answered "No," he rode as fast up Fleet Street as he can ride.'

"'Go you then,' quoth I, 'to Mr. Percy, for sure it is for him they seek, and bid him be gone: I will stay and see the uttermost.'"

(5) Furthermore; Lathbury, writing in the year 1839,[A] a.s.serts that Christopher Wright's advice was that each conspirator "should betake himself to flight in a different direction from any of his companions."[124]

[Footnote A: Lathbury's little book, published by Parker, is a very careful compilation (_me judice_). It contains an extract from the Act of Parliament ordaining an Annual Thanksgiving for November 5th; also in the second Edition (1840) an excellent fac-simile of Lord Mounteagle's Letter.

In Father Gerard's "_What was the Gunpowder Plot?_" (1896), on p. 173, is a fac-simile of the signature of Edward Oldcorne both before and after torture.]

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

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 Catesby, Thomas Winter, Percy, John Wright, Fawkes, Robert Winter, Bates, and Christopher Wright, Christopher Wright is represented as a tall man, in the high hat of the period, facing Catesby, and evidently engaged in earnest discourse with the arch-conspirator. Christopher Wright to enforce his utterance is holding up the forefinger of his right hand. Catesby's right hand is raised in front of Christopher Wright, while Catesby's left hand rests on the hilt of the sword girded on his side.[125]

(Of course the evidence in paragraphs (2) and (5) of the last chapter may have emanated from one and the same source; but the great point is that it _has emanated from somewhere_.)

In connection with Christopher Wright's propinquity to Thomas Ward possibly, and to Thomas Winter possibly likewise, on the Sunday immediately previous to the "fatal Fifth," the two following items of evidence are of consequence:--

(1) In Jardine's "_Narrative_," p. 98, we are told: "On Sunday, the 3rd of November, the conspirators heard from the same individual who had first informed them of the Letter to Lord Mounteagle, that the Letter had been shown to the King, who made great account of it, but enjoined the strictest secrecy."

_This individual was Thomas Ward._--(Jardine.)

Now, we have seen already that Stowe's "_Chronicle_" records "the next day after the delivery of the Letter" there was a conjunction of the planets--Thomas Winter and Christopher Wright.

This conjunction at or about this period I hold to be a very significant fact, tending to show that _either_ the one or the other must have sought his confederate out, as has been remarked already.

But from the following important Evidence of William Kyddall, servant to Robert Tyrwhitt, Esquire,[A] brother of Mrs. Ambrose Rookwood, and kinsman of Robert Keyes, it is evident that it was physically impossible for Christopher Wright to have met Thomas Winter on Sunday, the 27th of October; inasmuch as Christopher Wright was then at Lapworth, only twenty miles distant from Hindlip Hall.[B]

[Footnote A: Robert Tyrwhitt and William Tyrwhitt and one of Thomas Winter's uncles, David Ingleby, of Ripley (who married Lady Anne Neville, a daughter of Charles fifth Earl of Westmoreland), along with "Jesuits,"

were, about the year 1592, great frequenters of Twigmore, in Lincolns.h.i.+re, twelve miles from Hull by water. John Wright afterwards lived at Twigmore.

Father Garnet is known to have been at Twigmore.]

[Footnote B: For the information as to the distances between Coughton and Hindlip; and Stratford-on-Avon and Hindlip; also between Lapworth and Hindlip, I am indebted to Charles Avery, Esq., of Headless Cross, near Coughton; the Rev. Father Atherton, O.S.B., of Stratford-on-Avon; and George Davis, Esq., of York.]

Yet this does not disprove the material _fact_ of the meeting itself, the date or circ.u.mstance of time not belonging to the essence of the a.s.sertion. (See Appendix.)

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

GUNPOWDER PLOT BOOKS--PART I., NO. 52.

"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 before S^{r} Richard Verney Knighte high Sherriff for the Com. of Warr. S^{r} John fferrers & Willm Combes Esq^{r} Justices of peace there saith as followeth.

[Footnote A: Kettleby is near Brigg, in Lincolns.h.i.+re. Twigmore, where John Wright had lived, is also near the same town. (Communicated by R. H.

Dawson, Esq., of Beverley, a descendant of the Pendrells, of Boscobel.)]

"That he was intreated of Mr. John Wrighte, who was dwellinge at Twigmore in the Countie of Lincolne, to bringe his daught^{r} beinge eight or nine yere old to Lapworth to Nicholas Slyes[B] house where he hath harbored this half yere. He brought the child to Lapworth the xxiiii^{th} of October, and there was Mr. John Wrighte and his wife and Mr. Christopher Wrighte and his wife, soe he continued at Lapworth from Wednesdaie to Monday, from thence he goeth to London w^{th} Mr. Christopher Wrighte and came to London on Wednesdaie betwixt two & three a Clocke to St. Giles to the signe of the Maydenhead from whence Mr. Wrighte wente into the Towne and he stayed at the Inn, uppon ffriday one Richard Browne s^{r}vant to Mr. Wrighte wente downe into Surrey, and on ffriday at night Browne returned and he & Browne wente uppon Sattersdaie for the Child to a Towne he knoweth not about Croydon Race and broughte it to the Maydenhead at St.

Gyles to Mr. Wrighte the ffath^{r} who seeinge the child too little to be carried sent them backe w^{th} it to the place whence thei fetched it on Sonday Morninge, and thei retorned Sondaie night to the Maydenhead and it was purposed by Mr. Wright to come awaie w^{th} this examinate uppon Mondaie morninge but staied because Mr. Wrightes Clothes were not made till Tuesdaie morninge and then Mr. Wrighte sent this examinate _and[A]

William Ward nephew to Mr. Wrighte downe to Lapworth in Warwicks.h.i.+re_ whither they were now goinge. He saith he lefte Mr. Wright at London and knoweth not the causes why he came not away w^{th} them he saith that Browne lyeth in Westminster neare Whitehall at one Bonkers house. Thei broughte in their Cloakbagge a suit of Cloathes for Mr. John Wright a Petronell and a Rapier & dagger thinkinge to find him at Lapworth.

[Footnote B: Probably Nicholas Sly and his house were well known to Shakespeare. John Wright appears to have gone to Lapworth (which belonged to Catesby) about May, 1605. Who Mrs. John Wright was I do not know.]

[Footnote A: William Ward, one of the sons of Marmaduke Ward, _it will be remembered, had an uncle who lived at Court_. This surely must have been Thomas Ward. And I opine that the boy had been on a visit to this uncle; for at this time his father was at Lapworth, the house of John Wright. It is possible, however, that Christopher Wright and Kyddall may have brought young Ward up to London from Lapworth; but I do not think so, otherwise we should have been told the fact in Kyddall's evidence, most probably. (The italics are mine.)]

"Richard Verney.[B]

Jo: fferrers.[C]

W. Combes."[126][D]

[Footnote B: Sir Richard Verney, Knt., would be a friend, belike, of Sir Thomas Lucy, Knt., of Charlcote (a Warwicks.h.i.+re Puritan gentleman).]

[Footnote C: Of the Ferrers, of Baddlesley Clinton (a very old Catholic family).]

[Footnote D: From whom Shakespeare bought land. To John Combes, brother to William, the poet bequeathed his sword by Will.]

(No endors.e.m.e.nt).

Mistress Dorothie Robinson, Widdow, of Spur Alley, on the 7th of November, 1605, also deposed as follows:--