Thomas Phelippes

He served mainly under Sir Francis Walsingham, in the time of Elizabeth I, and most notably deciphered the coded letters of Babington Plot conspirators.

Therefore, he was employed by Sir Francis Walsingham, the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I. Phelippes joined the embassy of Amias Paulet in Paris in 1578.

[1] The appearance of Phelippes in 1586 was described by Mary, Queen of Scots, as "a man of low stature, slender in every way, dark yellow-haired on the head and clear yellow bearded", with a pock-marked face and short-sighted.

When he sent Walsingham the letter proving Mary, Queen of Scots's complicity in the plot Phelippes had drawn a gallows on the envelope.

According to historian Neville Williams,[5] the notes were smuggled to Mary via empty barrels from a brewer in Burton upon Trent who supplied the house at Chartley Manor where she was being held prisoner in the custody of Sir Amias Paulet.