The Identification of the Writer of the Anonymous Letter to Lord Monteagle in 1605

by Baron William Parker Monteagle; George Blacker Morgan

LIST OF FACSIMILES

1. The anonymous letter as delivered to Lord Monteagle, October 26, 1605, warning him not to attend the opening of Parliament appointed for the Fifth of November (From the original letter in the Museum of the Public Record Office)[Frontispiece]
2. A page of the MS. entitled "A Treatise against Lying," etc., formerly belonging to Francis Tresham, of which the handwriting was attributed by his brother, William Tresham, to William Vavasour. Now in the Bodleian Library. (Laud MSS. 655, folio 44)[1]
3. William Vavasour's handwriting in the letter to the Earl of Salisbury, dictated and signed by Francis Tresham when dying in the Tower, December 22, 1605 ("State Papers, Domestic," James I., ccxvi. 211)[1]

Stated by Vavasour to have been written by Mrs. Tresham. On March 24, 1605-6, he confessed that he wrote it and signed a note to it to that effect.

4. William Vavasour's handwriting in his untrue statement, written in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Tower, that No. 3 was written by Mrs. Tresham. Dated March 23, 1605-6 ("State Papers, Domestic," James I., ccxvi. 207)[1]

***To avoid detection of his falsehood, he writes a hand quite different from his ordinary writing in Nos. 2 and 3, thus producing a hand which is in itself identical with his former disguised writing as seen in the anonymous letter (No. 1).

5. George Vavasour's handwriting on the last leaf, which he renewed for Francis Tresham, of the MS. entitled "A Treatise against Lying," etc. (Laud MSS. 655, folio 61)To face page [26]