ROBERT CATESBY.

He was a descendant of another infamous Catesby, Sir John, the
well-known Minister of Richard the Third, satirised in the distich--

"The _Cat_, the Bat, and Lovel the Dog,
Govern all England under the Hog."

This gentleman fought with his master at Bosworth, and was beheaded
three days after the battle. His son George, who died in 1495-6, was
father of Sir Richard, who died in 1552, and who was succeeded by his
grandson Sir William, then aged six years, having been born at
Barcheston in 1546. He was perverted by Campion in 1580, and developed
into a famous recusant; was cited before the Star Chamber in 1581,
chiefly on the confession of Campion, for being a harbourer of Jesuits
and a hearer of mass; married at Ashby, 9th June 1566, Anne, daughter of
Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire; and died in 1598.
The eldest of his children (four sons and two daughters) was Robert
Catesby, the conspirator, born at Lapworth, Warwickshire, in 1573. At
the age of thirteen--for boys went up to college then at a much earlier
age than now--he matriculated, October 27th, 1586, at Gloucester Hall
(now Worcester College), Oxford, a house "much suspected," many of its
undergraduates being privately Roman Catholics. It was probably during
his residence in Oxford that he became a Protestant; and his change of
religion being evidently of no moral value, he also led a dissipated and
extravagant life. In 1592 he married a Protestant wife, Katherine,
daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire; she died
before 1602. His talents were considerable, his will inflexible, and he
possessed that singular power of attraction inherent in some persons. A
portrait reputed to be his exists at Brockhall, near Ashby. "He was
very wise," writes Gerard, "and of great judgment, though his utterance
not so good. Besides, he was so liberal and apt to help all sorts, as
it got him much love. He was of person above two yards high, and though
slender, yet as well-proportioned to his height as any man one should
see." Greenway adds that "his countenance was singularly noble and
expressive, his power of influencing others very great."

In 1593, on the death of his grandmother, he came into possession of
Chastleton, near Chipping Norton, county Oxford, where he resided until
1602, when, in consequence of foolishly joining (like many other
Romanists) the insurrection of Lord Essex, he sold Chastleton f