Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-03
GUY FAWKES' LEADER.
The Ancient Home of the Man Who
Was at the Head of the Famous
LONDON GUNPOWDER CONSPIRACY.
Ashby St. Iedgers, Its Description, Its
Long, Eventful History.
LETTER IN THE WAKEMAN SERIES
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPATCH.1

ASHbh oI. LEDGERS, ENGLAND, sept.
21.-One feels quite a prideful thrill of
original discovery if he can hit an object or
place in all Europe where the great Ameri-
can globe trotter has not already come; took
a hasty glance; photographed everybody
and everything with a snap camera or upon
his majestic memory; Clipped off piece of
the object or shrine for his collection; made
half dozen notes with stylographic pen
for future reference; cut his name and the
date of his visit upon any available wood
work about the spot or otherwise left his
mark; and then with 'tbif!" and "zip!"
projected himself meteorically through
space to the next pleasing or hideous object
of interest.
have found one spot in Great Britain
where these is at least no local record of the
| species. The fact is noteworthy one and
the place itself possesses extraordinary in
terest. 1t is called Ashby St. Ledgers. To
be very definite regarding locality so dis
tinctive for its so far quite unknown beam
ties and interest, it is but tiny "village
four miles north from Daventry, 16 from
Northampton, in the middivision of the
county of Northampton, hundred of Faws-
ley, petty seasonal division, union and
county court district of Daventry, rural
deanery of Daventry. archdeaconry of
Northampton and diocese of Peterborough. :"
ITS ONE CLAIM TO CELEBRITY.
The taxgatherers of the crown have thus
minutely located the village and parish and
| to make it perfectly accessible to those who
edo" ireland, Scotland and England in one
one week or less it should be added that
| Ashby St. Ledgers is but 13 minutes walk
westward from Wilton station, on the main
line of the London and Northwestern Rail
way from London to the noted school town
of Rugby, and that the most noted cOnspir-
acy in English history, popularly known
as "Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot" was
concocted within the sunny, slumberous
precincts of its now crumbling and ivy-cov-
cred walls.
Stripped of their usual bigoted verbiage,
it was plan originated by Sir Robert
| Catesby, lord of this very manor, and other
| malcontents, including Thomas Percy,
Christopher and John Wright, Thomas and
Robert Winter, one Bates, and their brave
tool, Guido Cor Guy) Faux Cor Fawkes),
representing the enemies of James l., to
remove an obnoxious government at single
explosion OF gurpOwder, instead of by
great and protracted waste of gunpowder
01IOuSh Clfll wal
THE DETAILS OF THE PLOT.
They rented a fine cellar Immediately un-
der Parliament House and succeeded in
concealing within it 80 barrels and hogs
heads Of gunpowder, covered with billets
anu faggots of wood, great iron bars,
stones" ETC.. besides young and ambitious
Mr.. Fawkes, wrapped in a cloak and
booted and spurred," and provided with "a
dark lanthorn and tinder boxe with which
to set off the touchwood" which, COM
municating with the 30 barrels and 4 hogs
heads of gunpowder, at the instant of the
Kings convening Parliament, November ),
1903, was expected to give immediate relief
to the political situation.
However, by means of an anonymous let
ter to Lord Monteagle, whom some one of
the conspirators desired to save, the plot |
was discovered, young Mr.. Fawkes, whom
the pictures represent as having for some |
time neglected his hair and beard, was dog |
ged out of his mysterious surroundings, |
spread upon convenient rack, inducing a !
confession and shorty after hanged while |
Percy Catesby, Winter and the two Wrights |
were chased from this place through War |
wickshire to Holbeach, in Staffordshire,
where they were all slain, fighting to the |
death, except Winter. He was captured |
alive, to die on the gallows; and a sufficient |
number of others, directly or supposititi-
ously connected with this mad effort.
WHERE THE CONSPIRACY WAS BORN.
The manor of ST. Ledgers, the former
home of the arch cOnspirator, Sir Robert |
Catesby, is one of the most ancient in |
Britain. 1t possesses an eventful history
1 am indebted for its romantic narrative to |
my host, Major H. p. Senhouse, its pres
ent proprietor and lord of the manor
Aside from its peculiar interest, in view of
st. Ledger's individual historic associa-
tions, it is most curious and fascinating as
illustrative of the extraordinarily recorded,
not traditional, age of innumerable English |
estates, their frequent strange vicissitudes,
and the almost purely historic volumes
which might be written upon nearly any
single piece of entailed manorial property
in England.
The manor was granted by William the
Conquerer to Hugh de Grentmaisnil over
800 years ago. At the time ''Domesday
Book, the first tax book of England, was
prepared Q080-6), this Hugh de Grent-
maisnil held four "hides'' of land in Ashbv.
There were eight acres of meadow. and the
whole was then valued at 60 shillings. This
Hugh accompanied the Conquerer on his
expedition to England and was rewarded for
his services with upward of 100 manors in
counties, 90 of which lay in North
THE HEIRSHIP'S SUCCESSION.
He was associated with Odo, Bishop of
Bayeaux, and William Fitz-Osb in exc
cutting the high office of justiciary of Eng
land two years after the conquest, and died
in 1904, six days after he had assumed a re-
ligious habit.
He was succeeded by his son Robert, from
whom the estate descended in 1922 to Ivo
de Grentmaisnil, his oldest surviving
brother and heir. This Ivo Joined the con-
federacv in support of Robert, Duke of n or
mandy, in the reign of Henry l., but the en-
terprise failing, and being heavily fined for
his delinquency, he applied for protection
to Robert, Earl of Mellent, one of the Kings
chief counselors, at whose suggestion he un-
dertook apilgrimage to Jerusalem.
For this purpose the Earl loaned him 500
marks, or about e333, for which he mort
gagged to him all his possessions in England,
by way of security, for Is years, on condi-
ton that it should be returned to his son
Ivo whom the Earl engaged on oath should
be married to his own niece, the daughter of I
lhe Earl of Warwick The King ratified
his agreement, but Ivo, the father, dying
on his pilgrimage the son was deprived of
both his wife and his inheritance
Another Hugh de Grentmaisnii successor
of lhe young lvo, appears to have subse-
1uently recovered his patrimony, which de-
scended to his daughter Petronilla, who,
Robert Blanchmaines, Earl of
Leicester, the grandson of Robert, Earl of
Melient, his possessions were all transferred
into that family.
UNDER THE LANCASTER REGIME.
l