15 Facts About Thomas Bates

Thomas Bates was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Thomas Bates was invited to join the conspiracy after he accidentally became aware of it.

Thomas Bates retracted his statement when it became clear he was to be executed.

Thomas Bates was born at Lapworth in Warwickshire, and was married to Martha Thomas Bates.

Thomas Bates was employed as a retainer to Sir Robert Catesby's family, and with his wife lived in a cottage on the Catesby family estate.

Thomas Bates was allowed his own servant, as well as his own armour.

Thomas Bates was considered a loyal and devoted servant to Catesby.

Thomas Bates was the seventh man to be enlisted into what became known as the Gunpowder Plot, a scheme devised early in 1604 by Catesby to kill King James I by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder, and inciting a popular revolt during which a Catholic monarch would be restored to the English throne.

Thomas Bates was uncomfortable with the idea, and was the only member of the conspiracy to object.

Thomas Bates was over-ruled however, and Catesby soon enlisted Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham and Everard Digby.

Thomas Bates's news proved momentous for the Jesuits; he overheard Tesimond exclaim "we are all utterly undone".

At some point between then and the arrival of the Sheriff of Worcester and his men, Thomas Bates left the house, possibly with his son and Digby.

Thomas Bates later retracted his confession when it became clear that he was to be executed.

Thomas Bates arrived at the hall separately from the others; prisons operated on a class-based system and so he was kept at the Gatehouse Prison, rather than the Tower.

Thomas Bates was the last to ascend the scaffold that day, and met a similarly gruesome end.