The scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished King James I's court with an image of corruption and depravity.

His cousin, Thomas Helwys (1575–1616), one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the Baptist denomination, was thrown into Newgate Prison by the king for libel, where he died in 1616.

Even the powerful Carr, hardly experienced for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend Overbury for assistance with government papers,[8] fell into the Howard camp.

They then were able to convince King James to offer Overbury an assignment as ambassador to the court of Tsar Michael of Russia, with the Howards being fully aware that his refusal would be seen as tantamount to treason.

"[citation needed] In July 1615, after rumours began circulating at court, it subsequently emerged that Overbury had in fact been poisoned[11][12] the discovery of the crime being revealed by a boy in the employment of one of the apothecaries responsible.

[17] He confessed later that he had entertained suspicions of this after discovering earlier attempts to poison Overbury on the part of the gaoler Weston, who had been placed in that position at the suggestion of Northampton.

It was plain both from Weston's statements and from Helwys' own, that the Lieutenant had done his very best to defeat the Turner-Essex-Northampton plot to poison his prisoner, throwing away the "rosalgar" and later "draughts", as well as substituting food for Overbury from his own kitchen for that "sent in" by Turner.

On 18 November, – Helwys, Weston, Turner and Franklin – were found guilty as "accessories before the fact done" and, lacking powerful connections, were sentenced to death.

On the day of his execution on the following Monday, 20 November at Tower Hill,[18] Helwys gave an impassioned speech to the crowd in attendance protesting his innocence: I was so far from thinking myself foul in the fact, that until these two Gentlemen, (Doctor Felton and Doctor Whiting, the physicians for my soul) told me how deeply I had imbrued my hands in the blood of (Overbury) making me, by God’s law, as guilty in the concealing (of it) as if I had been a personal actor in it.

Helwys left behind him eight children with his wife Mary: William, Thomas, Nathaniel Gervase John, Elizabeth Bridget, Maria, Jane, Anna and Francesca.