Everard Digby - Surrender

Surrender

Catesby and fellow conspirators Thomas Percy, John Wright and his brother Christopher were killed by the Sheriff of Worcester's men early on 8 November, but Digby had already left to give himself up (the only conspirator to do so). With two servants, possibly Bates and his son, he took several horses and hid in nearby woods. Their tracks were soon found however, and with some hesitation (Digby had intended to surrender himself to someone more worthy), early that morning he presented himself to the most senior-looking of his adversaries. While Digby was taken to the Tower of London, Gayhurst was ransacked; the servants' belongings were stolen, the livestock was sold cheaply, and Mary Digby was left destitute. The sheriff later remarked "All goods are carried away, even to the very floor of the great parlour." At the Tower, Digby's two trunks of clothing were searched, and found to contain £100 in gold, and £50 in white money. William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, asked if he could take £50 to pay for Digby's food and bedding.

Yesterday I was before Mr Attorney and my Lord Chief Justice, who asked me if I had taken the Sacrament to keep secret the plot as others did. I said that I had not, because I would avoid the question of at whose hands it were.

Digby unsuccessfully sought an audience with James to try and explain himself, in Fraser's opinion suggesting either that the extent of his involvement was limited, or that he was "astonishingly naive and trusting of his sovereign's forgiveness." While imprisoned he busied himself with writing secret letters, smuggled from the Tower and not rediscovered until Kenelm Digby's death in 1675. Although he was fortunate not to suffer the fate of Guy Fawkes, who was tortured on several occasions, one of these letters hints that it had been "in a fashion, offered". He described his refusal to cooperate with his interrogators, boasted of his deceit, and how there was nothing he could do to make the plot appear less abhorrent to fellow Catholics. Digby also carved an inscription on the wall of his cell, extant as of 1996.