Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/272

 of York, was second son of William Fawkes, registrar of the exchequer court of York diocese from 1541 till his death about 1565. Guy's paternal grandmother was Ellen Haryngton, daughter of an eminent York merchant, who was lord mayor of that city in 1536; she died in 1575, and bequeathed to Guy her best whistle and an angel of gold. His father was buried in York Minster 17 Jan. 1578–9; he left no will, and his whole estate devolved on his son ‘Guye,’ at the time barely nine years old. There can be no question that his parents were protestants; it is known that they were regular communicants at the parish church of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, and it is a fair inference that Guy was brought up in their belief. He attended the free school at York, where Thomas Morton, afterwards bishop of Durham, and Sir Thomas Cheke, besides John and Christopher Wright, afterwards his fellow-conspirators, were among his schoolfellows (cf., p. 37). In 1585 his father's brother, Thomas Fawkes, died, leaving the bulk of his estate to Guy's sisters Elizabeth and Anne, and a trifling legacy to his nephew—‘my gold rynge and my bedd, and one payre of shetes with th' appurtenances.’ Shortly afterwards his mother married a second time. Her husband was Dionis Baynbrigge of Scotton, Yorkshire, and Guy and his sisters removed with their mother to Scotton. Their stepfather, son of Peter Baynbrigge, by Frances Vavasour of Weston, was closely related with many great catholic families, and was doubtless of the same persuasion himself, while some near neighbours, named Pulleyn, were strong adherents of the old faith. Guy was greatly influenced by his new surroundings; the effects of his earlier training soon faded, and he became a zealous catholic. In 1591 he came of age, and succeeded to full possession of his father's property. On 14 Oct. 1591 he leased some houses and land in York to Christopher Lumley, a tailor, and soon afterwards made arrangements for disposing of the rest of his estate. In 1593 he left England for Flanders, where he enlisted as a soldier of fortune in the Spanish army. In 1595 he was present at the capture of Calais by the Spaniards under Archduke Albert, and, according to the testimony of Father Greenway, was ‘sought by all the most distinguished in the archduke's camp for nobility and virtue.’ Sir William Stanley, the chief English catholic who had joined the Spanish army, thought highly of Fawkes, and on the death of Elizabeth directed Fawkes and Fawkes's old schoolfellow, Christopher Wright, to visit Philip III, with a view to securing relief for their catholic fellow-countrymen.

As soon as James I had ascended the throne, and had declared himself in favour of the penal laws, the Gunpowder plot was hatched. Its originators were Robert Catesby [q. v.], John Wright, and Thomas Winter. Fawkes was well known to these men, but had no share in devising the conspiracy. Early in 1604 the conspirators still hoped that Spanish diplomacy might make their desperate remedy unnecessary. Velasco, the constable of Castile, was on his way to the court of James I to discuss the terms of a treaty of peace between Spain and England. Catesby desired to communicate with him at Bergen. Winter was selected for the service about Easter, and Catesby invited Fawkes to accompany him. This was the first active part that Fawkes played in Catesby's dangerous schemes. The journey of Winter and Fawkes brought little result. Soon after their return Fawkes went by appointment to a house beyond Clement's Inn, and there, with four others (Catesby, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, and John Wright), took a solemn oath to keep secret all that should be proposed to him. He and Percy, a gentleman pensioner, knew nothing at the time of the proposed plot. But after the ceremony of the oath Percy and Fawkes were informed of the plan of blowing up the parliament house while the king was in the House of Lords. Both approved the proposal, and with the other conspirators withdrew to an upper room, where mass was performed and the sacrament administered by Father Gerard, the jesuit. On 24 May 1604 Percy, acting under Catesby's orders, hired a tenement adjoining the parliament house, in the cellars of which it was determined to construct a mine communicating with the neighbouring premises. Fawkes was directed to disguise himself as Percy's servant and to assume the name of Johnson. As he was quite unknown in London, the keys and the care of the house were entrusted to him. But on 7 July parliament was adjourned till the following February, and the conspirators separated to resume operations about November. In the autumn the penal laws against the catholics were enforced with renewed severity. The conspirators met at Michaelmas, and Fawkes was ordered to prepare the construction of the mine. A delay arose because the commissioners to treat of the union of England and Scotland resolved to meet in the house which Percy had hired, but about 11 Dec. 1604 the five original conspirators brought in tools and provisions by night and began operations in the cellar. The digging of the mine proved more difficult than was anticipated, and John Wright's brother Christopher and Robert Keyes, who had