Mary Habington
Antiquarian writers thought that she was the author of the anonymous letter to her brother William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle which warned of the Gunpowder Plot.
[15] The suggestion that Mary was the author was attributed to William Dugdale in Anthony à Wood's Athenae Oxonienses published in 1691.
[18] In 1781, a historian of Worcestershire, Treadway Russell Nash wrote that Mary Habington's authorship of the letter was a local tradition.
[19] According to Oswald Tesimond's narrative, a member of Lord Monteagle's household told the conspirator Thomas Winter about the letter.
[21] Some writers, including Antonia Fraser, see the letter as a kind of fake, a political ruse engineered by the Earl of Salisbury.
[27][28][29][30] Strange was questioned about his interest in a Papal dispensation for the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, the parents of King James.
[31] Meanwhile, Oswald Tesimond alias Greenway came to Hindlip from Huddington Court bringing news of the plot discovery.
[33] At least four priests, with lay brothers, and servants came to Hindlip, after travelling from Coughton Court and Evesham before Christmas.
[34] On 15 January 1606, a proclamation was made for the arrest of John Gerard alias Brooke, Henry Garnet, and Oswald Tesimond.
Thomas Lister alias Butler (Dorothy Habington's priest) and Richard Fullwood left immediately.
[37] The house was raided two days later by Henry Bromley of Holt Castle, a magistrate searching for Catholic priests.
[55] During their examinations and interrogations, Nicholas Owen said that Garnet and Edward Hall (an alias of Oldcorne) usually dined at Hindlip with Thomas and Mary Habington.
[56] A farmer called Perkins was executed at Worcester on 27 January 1606 for harbouring Stephen Lyttelton and Robert Winter after their escape from Holbeche House.
Habington is said to have replied that his family's support for the mother of James VI and I, Mary, Queen of Scots, would count in his favour.
[62][63] King James was anxious to prosecute the Gunpowder plotters, but was curious about the Babington Plot, and commissioned portraits of six of the 1586 conspirators from Robert Peake.
[68] Thomas was found guilty on 4 April (of harbouring Garnet), but his life was saved, because of his confessions, and the intervention of Lord Monteagle.
[74] Nash mentioned in an Archaeologia article a portrait at Hindlip of Elizabeth Stanley, Lady Morley, Mary Habington's mother.
[75] Nash and Edmond Malone mention that the Hindlip collection in the 18th-century included a portrait said to be of the conspirator Thomas Percy.
