: The Identification of the Writer of the Anonymous Letter to Lord Monteagle in 1605 by Monteagle William Parker Baron Morgan George Blacker - Monteagle William Parker Baron 1574 or 1575-1622; Gunpowder Plot 1605

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PREFACE v

SECTION

LIST OF FACSIMILES

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.

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Tresham has a serving-man named William Vavasour, who attended Sir Thomas Tresham, and who, with his elder brother, George Vavasour , and their sister Muriel are favoured dependants of the Tresham family, being the children of an old and much valued Catholic servant. Both George and William are confidentially employed by Tresham as amanuenses, in transcribing religious, or treasonable, treatises of the time.

The Attorney-General, at Father Garnet's trial , pronounces Vavasour as being, in his opinion, "deeply guilty" in the treason; yet he is not even brought to trial, while other serving-men are tried and executed; although Lord Salisbury expressly declares that he will esteem his life unworthily given him, when he shall be found slack in bringing to prosecution and execution ALL who are in any way concerned in the treason; and his exertions in the matter are accounted to be so successful, that he is rewarded with the Order of the Garter.

Francis Tresham's inheritance remains in the family; and his serving-man, the "deeply guilty" William Vavasour, goes free.

FOOTNOTES:

THE OFFICIAL STORY OF THE LETTER

The authentic, or rather the official, story of the delivery of the letter, as published by the Government at the time, states that on Saturday, October 26, 1605, Lord Monteagle "being in his own lodging, ready to go to supper, at seven o'clock at night, one of his footmen was met by an unknown man, of a reasonable tall personage, who delivered him a letter, charging him to put it in my lord his master's hands; which my lord no sooner received, but that having broken it open, and perceiving the same to be of an unknown and somewhat unlegible hand, and without either date or subscription, called one of his men to help him to read it. But no sooner did he conceive the strange contents thereof, although he was somewhat perplexed what construction to make of it , yet did he, as a most dutiful and loyal subject, conclude not to conceal it, whatever might come of it, whereupon notwithstanding the lateness and darkness of the night in that season of the year, he presently repaired to his Majesty's palace at Whitehall, and there delivered the same to the Earl of Salisbury, his Majesty's principal Secretary."

Neither the official version nor any State paper mentions the place where the letter was delivered, which in such a mysterious matter would be the first inquiry. "Own lodging" at that time signified a person's house. Hoxton is generally stated to have been the place of delivery, which was then a single street in the outlying suburb on the great north road; at a house which Monteagle is known to have occupied, belonging to his brother-in-law, Francis Tresham; and this ownership may have been Salisbury's reason for not naming it, which so curious an omission seems to imply. The letter is as follows:

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