The Gunpowder Plotters’ Wives
Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
Thirteen men. The fourth plot to challenge a monarch. The potential destruction of London.
Ten women who knew their husbands were about to change all their lives forever.
Six were arrested. Most lost their homes and all lost their husbands.
These women have been silent for over four hundred years but now the wives
are about to have their say.
Think you know the story of the Gunpowder Plot?
Think again.
Introduction
In November 2020, I wrote a blog about the wives of the Gunpowder Plotters. They had grabbed my interest while I was researching The Arbella Stuart Conspiracy. As a writer who likes to find forgotten women and give them a voice, I wondered about the wives: who were they? Had they known about the plot? Had they been complicit?
Several books later, I was finally able to write their stories in The Secrets of Crestwell Hall. Using Bess Throckmorton, a cousin of Robert Catesby (the instigator of the Plot) and the wife of Sir Walter Raleigh, as my main character, I tried to reimagine the actions of the wives.
For those of you who, like me, are curious to know more about the women behind the Gunpowder Plotters, read on.
(PLEASE NOTE: THE IMAGES OF THE WIVES HAVE BEEN CREATED USING MAGIC ASSIST AI ON CANVA.COM. THEY ARE NOT GENUINE IMAGES)
Catherine Leigh (b: 1571/2. m: 1593. d: 1599) married to Robert Catesby (c. 1572, Warwickshire – 8 November 1605, Holbeche House, Staffordshire).
The wife of the instigator, Catherine was the daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, who was the son of Sir Thomas Leigh and Alice Barker (sometimes known as Coverdale) and Katherine Spencer, the daughter of John Spencer MP and Catherine Kitson. The Protestant Catherine was twenty-one when she married Catholic Robert Catesby in March 1593. They had two sons: William – who died as a baby – and Robert. The differing religions suggests various possibilities: it was a love match or in his youth Catesby was not such a zealous Catholic and political activist. She died in 1599. It was after this, Catesby’s interest in religion intensified.
Dorothy Scott married to John Wright (aka Jack) (January 1568 – 8 November 1605, Holbeche House, Staffordshire).
They were another pair of teenage sweethearts, it’s possible their first child, a daughter, Katherine was born out of wedlock in 1585, with the young couple finally tying the knot in 1588. Jack did not convert to Catholicism until the Essex Rebellion in 1601, then the family home of Twigmore Hall, North Lincolnshire became a safe house for Jesuit priests. When he was enthral to Catesby, Jack and Dorothy moved their six children to a house belonging to Catesby at Lapworth in Warwickshire. Dorothy’s family has been harder to trace and at present, I am still searching.
Thomas Wintour (1571, Worcestershire – 31 January 1606, executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster).
No records of a wife. (Although, you might want to read Tracy Borman’s The King’s Witch for suggestions!).
Mary Pulleine possibly married to Guy Fawkes (1570 – 31 January 1606, executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster).
Within certain versions of these events online and in a number of books, it has been suggested Guy Fawkes was married to Mary Pulleine and had a son, Thomas. However, there are no surviving records to confirm it. There are records concerning rents and land ownership that give Fawkes a clear connection to the Catholic Pulleine family of Scotton Hall, Yorkshire. This may have been where the suggestion arose.
Martha Wright married to Thomas Percy (1560 – 8 November 1605, Holbeche House, Staffordshire).
The daughter of Robert Wright and convicted recusant Ursula Rudston, Martha was up to her eyes in Gunpowder Plotters. She was married to Thomas Percy, while her brothers John (Jack) and Christopher (Kit) Wright were staunch members of the team who had been at school with Guy Fawkes.
Martha’s husband, Thomas Percy, was well-connected. His grandfather was the 4th Earl of Northumberland and his second cousin was the incumbent earl: Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, who was married to Dorothy Devereux, sister of the Earl of Essex, who had led the 1601 coup.
Martha was one of six wives arrested a week after the plot was discovered. She was taken to London to be questioned and was held at the house of an alderman. She was eventually released without charge.
Martha (Bates) married to Thomas Bates (1567 – executed 30 January 1606 in St Paul’s Churchyard).
The wife of Robert Catesby’s devoted servant but Martha’s maiden name and therefore her parentage has been impossible to trace.
Gertrude Talbot (1563 – 1608) married to Robert Wintour (executed 30 January 1606 in St Paul’s Churchyard)
Gertrude was the daughter of Sir John Talbot and his second wife, Katherine Petre. The Talbots were an important and influential family with connections to royalty through Lady Arbella Stuart. They were also known Catholics.
Gertrude and Robert lived at Huddington Court and had three children: John (1595 – 1622);
Mary (1597 – 1617) and Helena (1600 – 1671). After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, their house was used as a refuge for the men as they fled. Robert was the last of the plotters to be arrested on 9 January 1606.
Gertrude was not arrested and it has been suggested by historians that her aristocratic Talbot background was what saved her from this humiliation.
Margaret Ward married to Christopher (Kit) Wright (8 November 1605, Holbeche House, Staffordshire).
The sister of Marmaduke Ward, a bailiff for Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, he was married to her husband’s sister, Ursula. With this knot of connections, the Catholic Margaret was at the heart of the plot with her husband, her brother-in-law, Jack, her sister-in-law Martha and Martha’s husband, Thomas Percy. Everywhere she turned, there was a plotter.
She was one of the wives who was arrested the week after the plot had been discovered and taken to London. She, like Martha Percy, was released without charge.
Dorothy Wintour married to John Grant (1570 – 31 January 1606, executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster).
The sister of Thomas and Robert Wintour, she was the daughter of George Wintour of Coldwell, Worcestershire and Jane Ingleby. Dorothy and her husband owned Norbrook, a house not far from Stratford-upon-Avon. This was regarded as a strategic stronghold and was used to store a second consignment of gunpowder. In the months leading up to the plot, John Grant began storing weapons, so it is probable Dorothy was aware plans were being made.
When the men fled London, they stopped at Norbrook where they took the new shipment of explosives, hoping to make it to the Welsh borders and hide in the mountains.
Dorothy and John had one son, Wintour Grant. Dorothy was arrested and forcibly removed to London. Again, she was eventually released without charge but her house and fortune were lost.
Christina (Browne) (surname unconfirmed) married to Robert Keyes (1565 – 31 January 1606, executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster).
There are no definite records of Christina’s maiden name, so it was difficult to trace her connections. However, it is recorded that Christina was the widow of Thomas Groome and was working as governess to the children of Henry Mordaunt, 4th Baron Mordaunt, when she married Keyes. Christina was also arrested but released without charge.
Elizabeth Tyrwhitt married to Ambrose Rookwood (1578 – 31 January 1606, executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster).
The daughter of William Tyrwhitt and Catherine Browne, Elizabeth and her family were an old, wealthy and prominent Catholic family. Her marriage to Ambrose was a power match combining two powerful Catholic families.
Rookwood was the go-to man for horses and provided many of the superior bloodstock used by the other plotters. He also procured the first haul of gunpowder for Catesby.
Elizabeth was arrested with the other wives but, she was released without charge.
Anne Tufton married to Francis Tresham (1567 – 23 December 1605 in the Tower of London, of a natural illness).
Anne was married to Robert Catesby’s cousin, Francis Tresham. She was the daughter of Sir John Tufton of Hothfield in Kent and his first wife, Olympia Blore. She married Tresham in 1593 and they had three children: twins, Lucy and Thomas, and Elizabeth. Thomas died young, Lucy became a nun and Elizabeth married Sir George Heneage of Hainton, Lincs.
Records of Tresham’s misdemeanours – assault, affray and general bad behaviour – suggest he was unreliable. The volatility of his nature could be the reason he was not initiated into the plot until October 1605. He was arrested on 12 November after being named by Guy Fawkes. Tresham died of an unspecified illness while incarcerated in the Tower of London.
Tresham was also accused of writing the Monteagle letter. However, Catesby accepted his explanation that he was not the culprit. Strangely, Tresham did not flee with the other men but remained hidden in London.
Anne’s reaction is undocumented but as a Protestant, she would have been safe from the law.
Mary Mulsho was the daughter and heiress of the staunchly Protestant William Mulsho of Gothurst (later Gayhurst).
In 1596, she married Sir Everard Digby, who was born a Catholic but was raised as a ward of court as a Protestant. The marriage seemed to be happy and they had two sons: Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) who married Venetia Stanley, and John Digby.
After the plot was discovered, Sir Everard Digby joined his co-conspirators at Holbeche House, while Mary was at Coughton Court with the priest, Father Garnet.
Digby was not at Holbeche House when the other men were killed, he had ridden away accompanied by two servants to fetch help. He was caught and arrested a few days later and while in the Tower of London managed to smuggle out letters to Mary and other supportive Catholics.
He was tried separately because he pleaded guilty and made a speech from the scaffold referring to what Catholics thought were promises made by the king at the beginning of his reign, all of which had been reneged upon. Mary escaped punishment and after her husband’s execution, she was allowed to keep Gayhurst House. It was eventually inherited by their eldest son, Sir Kenelm Digby.