He was a man of rare parts, and the heroic story of his life and death must have often thrilled the hearts of his sister’s children.
Would that they had taken him as their model. For of all those many Roman Catholic Yorkshiremen[A] who, of divers ranks and degrees, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, preferred “death” to (what to them) was “dishonour,” none has left nobler memories than this self-sacrificing, exalted soul.[26]
[A] At least 49 persons, priests and laymen, suffered death in York alone for the Pope’s religion, between the reigns of Henry VIII. and Charles II. inclusive. The place of execution was usually the Tyburn, opposite Knavesmire, near Hob Moor Gate, in the middle of the Tadcaster High Road. In the reign of Philip and Mary no Protestant was burned to death in Yorkshire. Archbishop Heath, of York, like Bishop Tunstall, of Durham, and the great Catholic Jurist, Edmund Plowden, who, for conscience sake, declined the Chancellorship when offered to him by Elizabeth, did not think they could “save alive” the soul of a “heretic” by roasting “dead” his body at the stake. And they were right.
Thomas Winter, the ill-fated nephew of him just mentioned, was a courageous man and an accomplished linguist.
He had seen military service in Flanders, in behalf of the Estates-General against Spain, and in France, and possibly against the Turk.
We are told by a contemporary that “he was of such a wit and so fine a carriage, that he was of so pleasing conversation, desired much of the better sort, but an inseparable friend of Mr. Robert Catesby. He was of mean stature, but strong and comely and very valiant, about thirty-three years old, or somewhat more. His means were not great, but he lived in good sort, and with the best.”[27] He seems to have been unmarried.
Sir Everard Digby was a tall, handsome, singularly generous, charming young fellow, and like Ambrose Rookwood, previously mentioned, had won the loving favour of all who knew him. Digby had two estates in the County of Rutlandshire (Tilton and Drystoke), also property in the County of Leicestershire; and through his amiable and beautiful young wife, Mary Mulsho, a wealthy heiress, he was the owner of Gothurst[A] (now Gayhurst) in the parish of Tyringham, near Newport Pagnell, in the County of Buckinghamshire, still one of England’s stately homes.[28]
Francis Tresham was married to a Throckmorton, and was connected with many English families of historic name, high rank, and great fortune.
[A] Gothurst (now Gayhurst), resembles in its style of architecture, The Treasurer’s House, York, on the North side of the Minster, the town-house of Frank Green, Esquire. Walter Carlile, Esquire, now resides at Gayhurst.
He was a first cousin to Robert Catesby through his mother — a Throckmorton. Tresham and the Winters were also akin.