Rookwood (novel) of "Rookwood" and many more added in later editions. Of the other songs, some were sung by gypsies about love, some were hymns, and some were used to further the gothic setting. The name Rookwood alludes to the old Recusant (Roman Catholic) family of that name, most famous of whom was Ambrose Rookwood, executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot (the conspiracy which forms the theme of Ainsworth's 1841 novel "Guy Fawkes"). Ainsworth, perhaps consciously, paid a double homage to this family, in that his later historical romance "The Spendthrift" concerns an eighteenth-century heir of the Gage
Robert Ambrose (politician) Robert Ambrose (politician) Robert Ambrose (1855 – 13 June 1940) was an Irish politician. Born in Newcastle West in County Limerick, the son of Michael Ambrose and Eliza Quaide, he was educated at Wier's School and Queen's College, Cork. He qualified as a surgeon and set up a practice in the East End of London. Despite this, he stood in the West Mayo by-election, 1893 for the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation and was elected, holding his seat in the 1895, 1900 and 1906 general elections. He decided not to stand in January 1910, and instead became involved with the British