Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/224

 gunpowder plot, and on All Saints' day 1603 sent for Thomas Winter, who was then with his brother at Huddington. Winter, however, was not able to meet his friend till January 1604, when he found him in the company of John Wright. It was then that Catesby propounded to Winter, and probably to Wright, his plan ‘at one instant to deliver us from all our bonds without any foreign help.’ On Winter making difficulties, Catesby suggested his going over to Flanders to see Juan de Velasco, the constable of Castile, who had arrived at Brussels about the middle of January to negotiate peace with England. Winter was to learn what the constable could or could not do to obtain toleration for catholics, and was to bring Fawkes over to England. Winter visited the constable with Hugh Owen, and, being convinced that no help could be expected from Spain, was introduced by Sir William Stanley (1548–1630) [q. v.] to Fawkes, whom he took back with him to London about Easter-time. The oath of secrecy was then taken by the three men, together with Percy and Wright, and the details of the plot communicated to them by Catesby.

Winter took a prominent part in the working of the mine under the parliament house, and afterwards in introducing powder into the cellar. The news of the Monteagle letter and the probable discovery of the plot reached him on Sunday, 27 Oct. 1605. He at once went to White Webbs, whither several of his confederates had retired, and tried in vain to persuade Catesby to save himself by flight. On the 31st he returned to London. On 4 Nov. Catesby rode away towards the appointed meeting-place at Dunchurch. Winter himself courageously remained behind till, on the morning of the 5th, fully satisfied that all was discovered, he followed his friends, overtaking Catesby at Huddington on Wednesday night, 6 Nov. The next evening the company of conspirators went to Stephen Littleton's at Holbeche, and there, on the morning of the 8th, prepared to resist the sheriff's officers who were in pursuit. In the encounter which followed Winter was the first struck, being shot by an arrow from a crossbow, which deprived him of the use of his arm; while Catesby, crying out, ‘Stand by me, Tom, and we will die together!’ fell mortally wounded. Winter was seized and carried prisoner to the Tower. He was the only one of the five original workers in the mine, besides Fawkes, who was in the hands of the government.

There is no evidence that Winter was subjected to torture. But on 21 Nov. Sir William Waad [q. v.], lieutenant of the Tower, wrote to Salisbury that ‘Thomas Winter doth find his hand so strong, as after dinner he will settle himself to write that he hath verbally declared to your lordship, adding what he shall remember.’ The confession which Winter actually made (extant at Hatfield and transcribed in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 6178) appears to have been originally written and dated on the 23rd, was perhaps exhibited before the commissioners, and was confirmed by Winter two days later, when it was endorsed by the attorney-general as ‘delivered by Thomas Winter, all written with his own hand, Nov. 25, 1605.’ On the 26th Waad reported moreover that ‘Thomas Winter hath set down in writing of his own hand the whole course of his employment with Spain, which I send to your lordship herein enclosed’ (cf. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 6178, pp. 581, 601). This last document, as has been said, has unfortunately disappeared, though a trace of it remains in the shape of a memorandum or note, dated the 25th, mentioning that Monteagle, Catesby, and Tresham were the projectors of this Spanish mission. Winter, with seven other conspirators, including his brother Robert, was put upon his trial on 27 Jan. 1606. On his condemnation he only begged that he might be hanged both for his brother and for himself. He was executed on Friday, 31 Jan.

The genuineness of Winter's confession has recently been disputed by Father Gerard, S.J., in his several ingenious attempts to throw doubt on the whole traditional story of the plot. The main features of the plot, indeed, rest upon evidence independent of that of Winter, but his confession, a long and important document of eight closely written folio pages, contains a connected narrative of the whole course of the conspiracy, with many picturesque incidents not found elsewhere. It would be out of place to enter into a detailed discussion of the question here. Father Gerard's principal arguments are that the confession is signed ‘Winter,’ not ‘Wintour,’ as in all other acknowledged signatures; that the handwriting is suspiciously similar to that of Winter before, but not after, the injury to his arm; and that the numerous corrections and erasures indicate the work of a forger copying a draft submitted to him. On the other hand, the difficulties in supposing such a forgery on the part of the government are overwhelming. Not only would Waad, Sir E. Coke, and Salisbury be implicated, but all the commissioners whose names are set down as attesting it in the printed copies published to the world, and three of these commis-