Everard Digby

Sir Everard Digby (c. 1578 – 30 January 1606) was a member of the group of provincial members of the English nobility who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Anglican household and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were secretly received into the strictly illegal and underground Catholic Church in England by the Jesuit priest Fr. John Gerard. In the autumn of 1605, he made a Christian pilgrimage to the shrine of St Winefride's Well in Holywell, Wales. About this time, he met Robert Catesby, who was planning to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder as an alleged act of tyrannicide and a decapitation strike against King James I. Catesby then planned to lead a popular uprising aimed at regime change, through which a Catholic monarch would be placed upon the English throne. The full extent of Digby's knowledge of and involvement in the plot is unknown, but at Catesby's behest, Digby rented Coughton Court and prepared a "hunting party", ready for the planned uprising. The plot failed, however, and Digby joined the conspirators as they took flight through the Midlands, failing to garner support along their way. Digby left the other fugitives at Holbeche House in Staffordshire, and was soon captured and taken to the Tower of London. Digby was tried on 27 January 1606. Despite an eloquent defence, he was found guilty of high treason, and three days later was hanged, drawn and quartered. Origins The Digby family was of Leicestershire origin. Sir John Digby (d. 1269) served on two crusades, and, by 1418, Sir Everard "Greenleaf" Digby was Lord of Tilton and owner of the manor at Drystoke (Stoke Dry), and Rutland's Member of Parliament. Sir Everard lost his life (and his family much of their fortune) fighting in 1461 for Henry VI against Edward IV. The family had a more positive reversal of fortune in 1485 when Sir Everard's sons fought for the victorious Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field.