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Litho 12 Fludyer St Westm"

300

PLAN of the POWDER PLOT CELLAR and other BUILDINGS, Adjoining the Old Palace. Westminster.

1825.]

Account of the Powder Plot Cellar, Westminster.

A loyn of Mutton and shoulder of Veale

A brest and coller of Mutton

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1 barell Double Beer 1 barell Small Beer 1 quarter of Wood Nutmegs, Mace, Cinnamon and Graises

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4 pound Barbery Sugar Fruit and Almonds

Sweet Water and Perfumes 16 Oranges

2 gall. clarrett Wine

1 quart Sack.

1 quart Malmsey

1 quart Barturd'
1 quart Muskadine

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Mr. URBAN, Aug. 16. SEND you for insertion a plan of the Powder Plot Cellar, and other buildings adjoining, taken from some memoranda and measures, made by myself and two other persons some years since, while those buildings were remaining unaltered. Very few persons, it is believed, were ever in the Cellar, or knew where it was situated; and there is reason to think, that no similar plan may be in existence, but to a certainty none has ever been before published. And, as the buildings, which were part of the old palace,

have in the late alterations at Westminster (to speak at least of the old House of Lords, the Powder Plot Cellar, and the house which the conspirators first occupied) all been destroyed, it was thought important to endeavour thus to preserve and perpetuate the

remembrance of them.

Explanation of Plan.

A. Part of the Commons Committee Rooms, Westminster Hall, &c.

B. Lobby to House of Commons. C. House of Commons, formerly St. Stephen's Chapel.

GENT. MAG. September, 1825.

209

D. Cloysters to St. Stephen's Chapel, now Speaker's House.

E. Speaker's Garden.
F. Mr. Hatsell's house.
G. Mr. Hatsell's garden.

H. Old brick building, since removed. 1. Court of Requests, present House of Lords.

F. Gallery from House of Commons to Painted Chamber.

K. Cotton Garden.

L. Painted Chamber.

M. Irregular brick buildings, erected against it.

N. Waghorn's Coffee house.

O. Part of Cellars below, but covered with Committee-rooms for the Lords. P. Staircase from Cellar up to Painted Chamber.

Q. The House which Percy first hired.

R. A small enclosure, joining Powder Plot Cellar, and opening into it.

S. Powder Plot Cellar, under the Old House of Lords.

T. Irregular Brick Buildings.

U. Prince's Chamber.

V. A small Court, leading into Parliament Place.

W. A Passage from Cotton Garden into Parliament Place.

X. Part of Old Palace Yard.
Y. Part of Parliament Place.

The particulars of the Powder Plot, and the circumstances attending its discovery, are of course too well known to need repetition. All that is here intended, therefore, is to ascertain and point out the several spots, to which the narrative refers.

When, in a meeting of the conspirators, in a house behind St. Clement's Church in the Strand, about the middle of Easter Term 1603, as it seems, the nature of the plot had been decided. Percy, one of the conspirators, was sent to hire a house at Westminster, which Fawkes and Winter, in their separate confessions*, subsequently made, describe as near adjoyning to the Parlia ment House. Winter, in his confessiont, says it belonged to one Ferris, and that Catesby, one of the conspirators, was the person who hired it, and thereby became, as Ferris before was, tenant to Whinyard, Lord Salisbury,

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210

Account of the Powder Plot Cellar, Westminster.

in a Letter in Winwood's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 170, says, that Percy hired a part of Vyniard House, in the Old Palace; evidently mistaking the name, instead of Winyard's house, as belonging to Winyard. That person, Winyard, in a relation inserted in the Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 207*, is mentioned as having the keeping of some of the King's stuff, and as having been an honest and ancient servant of the late Queen. So that evidently he was keeper of the wardrobe. The same relation also speaks of Winyard's having let some part of a room under the Parliament Chamber, to one that used it as a cellar, who is afterwards named as Thomas Percy. Speed+ points it out still more particularly as "a certain edifice, adjoining the wall of the Parliament House, which served for with drawing rooms for the assembled Lords, and out of Parliament was at the dispose of the Keeper of the Place [Palace] and Wardrobe thereto befonging." And this account of Speed's, so far as it speaks of the House as consisting of withdrawing rooms for the Lords, is confirmed by Winter's confession, in which he mentions the necessity they at one time experienced of postponing their work, because the Scotch Lords were appointed to sit in conference on the Union in Percy's houset.

Unquestionably, from all these circumstances of description, this must have been a house which at one time stood on the spot marked R in the plan. But the original house, existing at the time of the Powder Plot, was afterwards pulled down, and replaced by another, which has also itself been since destroyed. This last erection was at one time used as the Ordnance Office, and afterwards as one entrance to the old House of Lords. While it continued the Ordnance Office, a view of it was taken by Wale, for the purpose of insertion in London and its Environs,"published in 1761, in which work it will be found engraven.

This original house the conspirators occupied, and they continued in possession of it till about Easter 1605; for Fawkes, in his confession says, that about 11 Dec. 1604, they began

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their mine, that by Christmas they had brought their mine to the wall, and about Candlemas had wrought the wall half throught." After this he says, "about Candlemas they worked another fortnight in the mine against the stone wall, which was very hard to beat through." Fawkes says, "truly it was three yards thick 1." He speaks of the foundation wall, which of course was the thickest; and the wall of the superstructure, above ground, was on measuring it, in one place found to be, in that instance, 6 feet 8 inches and an half, which is but 2 feet 34 inches short of that measure. About Easter 1604-5, it was, that while they were working, they heard the noise of removing coals in the adjoining cellar §. On sending round, they found the cellar was to be let. They immediately took it, and this was, beyond all doubt, the great cellar under the old House of Lords, which is marked in the plan with the letter S. Smith, in the Antiquities of Westminster, has given

views of the elevations of the four sides of this cellar, in the lowest of which, as it stands in the plate, may be seen in a recess near the right hand extremity, as the beholder looks at it, the door through which Guy Fawkes, when he had fired the train, was to have made his escape. This he was to have done by crossing a small court, marked V. in the plan, into Parliament Place Y. and so to the water, at the further end of Parliament Place, where a boat was to have been in waiting for him. A view of the stairs and landing place, at the end of Parliament Place, which are now removed, and the end of the passage closed up with a wall, is given in an engraving in Smith's Antiquities, from a drawing communicated by Sir James Winter Lake.

This cellar, which was 77 feet long, 10 feet 3 inches high, and 24 feet 4 inches wide, was accessible two ways. One from Cotton Garden, through a door under the North side of the Painted Chamber, a view of which may be seen in Smith's Antiquities; the other from Parliament Place, through the small court, marked V in the plan, and so through the door, above described as that through which Fawkes intended to make his escape

+ Fawke's Confession, p. 41.
Ibid. p. 41.

§ Ibid. p. 42.

1825.]

Letter to Lord Monteagle on the Powder Plot.

into the cellar itself. In Smith's Antiquities is a view of the East end of the Prince's Chamber, which shews the appearance of this court, and a door communicating with that before described. But the whole of these buildings have been removed.

At which of these two entrances Fawkes was apprehended, has not been particularly pointed out; but the latter is the more probable, as being the most secret, and therefore better suiting the conspirator's purposes, which required concealment; and being be sides nearer to the river Thames, the track in which he meant to escape. There is strong reason for fixing the letter, by which the plot was discovered, not on Percy, as a friend, as Lord Monteagle supposed, but on a mach nearer relation, unfortunately connected with one unhappily too deeply privy at least to the existence and tendency of the plot.

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Lord Monteagle's eldest sister, Mary, was married to Thomas Abington, of Hinlip in Worcestershire, esq.*; and Green, in his History of Worcester, vol. ii. p. 102, says, Mr. Abington's wife, daughter of Lord Morley, is supposed to have written that letter to her brother Lord Monteagle, which warned him of the impending danger of the Powder Plot, and was intended to save him from the intended massacre;" but Green has given no reason or authority for his assertion.

Sir Edward Coke, in his speech on the trial of Garnet the Jesuit, 28 March, 1606, mentions Greenwel the Jesuit, as meeting in Master Abington's house, with Hall another Jesuit; and as advising Hall to lose no time, but forthwith to seek to raise and stir up as many as he could+. And the Earl of Salisbury, who was one of the Commissioners for trying Garnet, notices that as soon as Catesby and Percy were in arms, Greenwel came to them from Garnet, and so went from them to Hall, at Master Abington's house, inviting them most earnestly to come and assist those gentlemen in action. Thomas Abington's name occurs among those of the conspirators, in the memorial tablet erected by Sir William Wade, knt. Lieutenant of the Tower,

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211

in the Deputy Lieutenant's apartments, called the Council Chamber, in the Tower, in the year 1608. And Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter to Mr. Winwood, dated 5th April, 1606, and inserted in the Winwood State Papers, vol. ii. p. 206, says, Abington, Hall, and another priest, were sent down, the last week, to Worcester, to be tried at the Assizes there." It does not appear what became of this trial, but these circumstances are sufficient evidence that he was deeply implicated in the plot.

The letter must have been written by one who was well acquainted with the movements of Lord Monteagle, and who was able to give precise directions where at any particular time he might be found. And the messenger must have been perfectly instructed on this point; for it is observable, that the letter was not delivered at Lord Monteagle's house or residence, but to a servant of his in the Strand, about six o'clock in the evening. Now the fact is, that Lord Monteagle, though his father Lord Morley was still living, was himself a peer of Parliament, the Barony of Monteagle having descended to him on the death of his mother*; and his regular residence was at Monteagle House, Monteagle Close, Southwark, which is now standing; but this being too far off from the House of Lords, and there being then no bridge at Westminster, he had taken lodgings in the Strand, which was then as fashionable a place of residence as Bond-street would now bet. And who, but a person well acquainted with his motions, could know, that ten days before the meeting of Parliament he was residing in lodgings in the Strand?

Another proof that this letter was written by some one very nearly allied to, or connected with Lord Monteagle, arises from the letter itself, which at first was written, "My Lord, out of the love I beare your." The writer was proceeding to say "Lordship," but thinking that too personal, and likely to point out the writer to be some relation, altered it to "out of

* See Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 255. + Clark's Enquiry as to "God save the King," p. 85; and p. 81 a view of the house itself. The House is also engraved in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXVIII. p. 777.

See Ben Jonson's Comedy of Epicene, or The Silent Woman.

the

212

Pedigree of the Rokeby Family.

the love I beare to some of youere frends," by blotting out the word "your," in the first instance, and adding the rest *.

The situation of Mrs. Abington, as the wife of one of the conspirators, of whose treason she dreaded the detection, and the sister of Lord Monteagle, whom she wished to save from destruction (for probably she knew, that from other engagements, her father Lord Morley would be absent, or that her brother would not fail to warn him), naturally suggested to her the mode she adopted, in which she certainly acted with considerable dexterity. And the circumstances above mentioned, it is imagined, are so strong, as to leave very little, if any doubt, that she was the person who wrote the letter.

As the original materials or evidence for the principal of these facts lie dispersed, it may not be useless to insert the following information.

The original letter to Lord Monteagle, which discovered the plot, is still remaining in the State Paper

Mr. URBAN,

POSSESSING

Sept. 6.

a Pedigree of the Rokeby Family, duly set forth on vellum, several yards in length, with the arms properly emblazoned, and a MS. account of the same "once powerful family," also very neatly written upon vellum, and as long as the pedigree; it struck me the other day, for the first time, to refer to Sir Walter Scott's Poem, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it contained anything which they might tend to elucidate. With this object in view, I searched the notes to Rokeby, where I found a statement of the family pedigree, which differing in various re

[Sept.

Office, now held in Great Georgestreet, Westminster; and a fac-simile of it is given in the Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 200*.

The original tablet, erected by Sir William Wade in the Tower, is still existing there; and an engraving, and copies of the inscriptions, are to be found in the Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 193.

An account of the discovery of the Plot, in manuscript, corrected in the hand-writing of Lord Salisbury, then Secretary of State, is now preserved in the State Paper Office, and printed in the Archæologia, vol. xii. p. 202*.

King James's own account, in his Speech to the Parliament, is printed in the Journals of the House of Lords, vol. ii. p. 358, and reprinted in the Archologia, vol. xii. p. 200*. A Letter of the Earl of Salisbury to Sir Chas. Cornwallis, giving an account of the discovery of the Plot, dated 9th Nov. 1605, is inserted, from a manuscript in the Cotton Library, in Winwood's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 171. J. S. H.

spects from the one that I possess, I am induced to send you a verbatim et literatim copy of both for insertion in your Magazine, if you think them worthy the space they must necessarily occupy. I of course do not mean to assume that mine is the correct one, far from it, I would only surmise that such a thing is probable, from the fact of its being apparently the more ancient, as it contains one generation less than Sir Walter's, and it appears to have been emblazoned during the life of the last member of the family which it notices, judging at least from the observation of the Genealogist attached to No. 17.

Note 2nd to 5th Canto of Rokeby, “Pedigree of the House of ROKEBY."

1. "Sir Alex. Rokeby, Knt. married to Sir Hump. Liftle's daughter†.

2. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Tho. Lumley's daughter.

3. Sir Tho. Rokeby, Knt. to Tho. Hubban's daughter.

4. Sir Ralph Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Ralph Biggott's daughter.

5. Sir Tho. Rokeby, Knt. to Sir John de Melsass' daughter, of Benne-hall, in Holderness.

6. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Sir Bryan Stapleton's daughter, of Weighill.

7. Sir Thomas Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Ralph Wry's daughter.

8. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to daughter of Mansfield, heir of Morton.

9. Sir Tho. Rokeby, Knt. to Strode's daughter and heir.

10. Sir Ralph Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Jas. Strangwaye's daughter.

11. Sir Thomas Rokeby, Knt. to Sir John Hotham's daughter.

12. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Danby, of Yafforth, daughter and heir‡.

18. Tho. Rokeby, Esq. to Rob. Constable's daughter, of Cliff, Serjeant-at-Law.

See the original letter, Archæol. vol. xii. p. 200*.

+ Lisle.

Temp. Henr. VII. mi. and from him is the House of Skyers of a fourth brother.

14. Chris

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