Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/32

28 note was made of his associates. Such a man, therefore, was placed in a position of the greatest difficulty when called upon to move about London and the country on errands (in company with notorious recusants) requiring the utmost secrecy.

Born at Lapworth, Warwickshire, in the year 1573, Catesby was the only surviving son of Sir William Catesby by his wife Anne, a daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton. He was lineally descended from the famous councillor (William Catesby) of King Richard III., whose name lives in the popular couplet

'Mr. Catesby,' says Father Gerard in his Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, 'was a gentleman of an ancient and great family in England, whose chief estate and dwelling was in Warwickshire, though his ancestors had much living in other shires also. Some of his ancestors had borne great sway in England. But commonly the greatest men are not the best. Some others hath been of great esteem for virtue, as, namely, one knight of his house was commonly known and called in all the country "good Sir William," of whom this memorable thing is recorded: that "when he had lived so