Dry, Rutland, was born on the 16th of May 1578. He
inherited a large estate at his father's death in 1592, and acquired a
considerable increase by his marriage in 1596 to Mary, daughter and heir
of William Mulsho of Gothurst (now Gayhurst), in Buckinghamshire. He
obtained a place in Queen Elizabeth's household and as a ward of the
crown was brought up a Protestant; but about 1599 he came under the
influence of the Jesuit, John Gerard, and soon afterwards joined the
Roman Catholics. He supported James's accession and was knighted by the
latter on the 23rd of April 1603. In a letter to Salisbury, the date of
which has been ascribed to May 1605, Digby offered to go on a mission to
the pope to obtain from the latter a promise to prevent Romanist
attempts against the government in return for concessions to the Roman
Catholics; adding that if severe measures were again taken against them
"within brief there will be massacres, rebellions and desperate attempts
against the king and state." Digby had suffered no personal injury or
persecution on account of his religion, but he sympathized with his
co-religionists; and when at Michaelmas, 1605, the government had fully
decided to return to the policy of repression, the authors of the
Gunpowder Plot (q.v.) sought his financial support, and he joined
eagerly in the conspiracy. His particular share in the plan was the
organization of a rising in the Midlands; and on the pretence of a
hunting party he assembled a body of gentlemen together at Danchurch in
Warwickshire on the 5th of November, who were to take action immediately
the news arrived from London of the successful destruction of the king
and the House of Lords, and to seize the person of the princess
Elizabeth, who was residing in the neighbourhood. The conspirators
arrived late on the evening of the 6th to tell their story of failure
and disaster, and Digby, who possibly might have escaped the more
serious charge of high treason, was persuaded by Catesby, with a false
tale that the king and Salisbury were dead, to further implicate himself
in the plot and join the small band of conspirators in their hopeless
endeavour to raise the country. He accompanied them, the same day, to
Huddington in Worcestershire and on the 7th to Holbeche in
Staffordshire. The following morning, however, he abandoned his
companions, dismissed his servants except two, who declared "they would
never leave him but against their will," and attempted wit