Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-20
NOTES. AND QUERIES.
Answers to the Questions Put by
Curious Dispatch Readers
THE FAMOUS FIFTH OF NOVEMBER.
How to Discover Whether Ancestors Were
in the Revolution.
A VERY REMARKABLE CITY IN NORWAY

November" as friend sang the other day
something about "Remember, remember,
the hfth OF November" DEC.
Your friend sang the beginning of an old
English song, the origin of which we do
not know, the whole of which, however, is
as follows:
Remember, remember,
The fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
i see no reason
Why gunpowder treason.
Should ever Dc forgot.
November 5, 1905, was the day on which
the English Parliament was to meet at the
Parliament House in London. On the
night of November 4, or early in the morn
ing of the 9th, the discovery was made of
famous 'tgunpowder plot" the object of
which was to blow up Parliament, King,
Lords and Commons, and thus remedy with
sharp correction q terrible disease of the
body polltic. There was no suspicion of
personal revenge connected with the plot
Some Roman Catholic gentleman, angered
that their efforts to obtain the English
throne for the Scotch King had obtained as
reward only the re-enactment of Elizabeth's
laws against them and their co-religionists,
determined to remove James in such a way
as to strike terror among those opposed to
the Roman Catholics. Robert Catesby was
the leader of the conspiracy; he had
suffered much under Elizabeth for
his religions sake, and was wholly dis
affected to James Oilers were Catesby's
cousins, Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy,
John Wright, Garnet, the superior of the
Jesuits in England. Robert Winter, Chris
topher Wright, Sir William Stanley,
Francis Tresham, Rokewood, Keyes and
Sir Everard Digby. Catesby laid the plan
before Thomas Winter early in 1904; in
May, despairing of help from Spain in
securing the repeal of the penal laws
against Roman Catholics, the conspirators
began to work. They hired Vinegar House.
building adjoining the Parliament House,
and put Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman in
charge of the place, and of the tunnel and
mine. ALL was prepared in May 1905.
The intention was to kill James and Henry,
the Prince of Wales; to seize Prince Charles
and the Princess Elizabeth and raise the
Roman Catholic gentry; and with the new
king (Charles would succeed to the throne
on the death Of his father and brother) in
the hands of the Roman Catholics, to
compel the repeal of the obnoxious laws.
Ten days before the meeting of Parliament,
Lord Monteagle, friend of several of the
conspirators, was warned not to attend the
opening; he showed the letter to Salisbury,
Secretary of State to the King, who showed
it. to James; and every precaution was
taken. Winter was warned that all was
discovered and the others were advised to
fly; but all waited. On November 4, the
Lord Chamberlain discovered Fawkes in
vault of the Parliament House, where a
great quantity of fuel was stored; he be-
came suspicious, and ordered Sir Thomas
Knevet to make stricter search; Sir Thomas
! did SO, and found Sc barrels of gunpowder
under the fuel. Fawkes was arrested, and
under torture, confessed. On January 80,
1906, four of the conspirators were drawn,
hanged and quartered; and on January 81,
Winter, Rokewood, Keyes and Fawkes
were executed. The others were executed
as they were captured, some of them having
tackled. The plot had evil effects for the
Roman Catholics, for the laws against them
were made mnch strictor. November 5 was
ordered to be kept as a day Of thanksgiving
for ever; but in 1858 the act was repealed,
and the form OF thanksgiving services was
removed from the English prayer book. 1t
was customary in England on November
for children to make an efigy of Guy
Fawkes, to carry it about the streets in
chair, singing the song about which ''De-
cember" asked and finally to burn it on
bonfire. 1t is said that the whole "plot"
was devised by Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, to
give him an excuse to proceed against the
Roman Catholics; but the statement is not
SO well evidenced as that given above.