Robert and Thomas Wintour is written about the Gunpowder Plot is derived from Thomas's confession, signed on 23 November 1605; details of the so-called Spanish Treason were added three days later. One of only two confessions printed in the "King's Book" (a highly partial contemporary account of the affair), Thomas Wintour's was the only account the government had of a plotter who had been involved from the beginning; Guy Fawkes, weakened by days of torture, may have been at the heart of the group, but he was not at its first meetings. However, Antonia Fraser views the document with suspicion, not least because Thomas's
Ambrose Rookwood (Jacobite) which in particular allowed for defense counsel. Rookwood pleaded not guilty, and was defended by Sir Bartholomew Shower and Constantine Phipps. George Porter, one of the principal conspirators, gave evidence against him, and Rookwood was convicted. Rookwood was executed at Tyburn on 29 April, with Lowick and Cranburn. In a manuscript which he gave to the sheriff at the place of execution, he excused himself. Some "Observations" on this paper were published in 1696. Ambrose Rookwood (Jacobite) Ambrose Rookwood (1664–1696) was an English Jacobite soldier, a conspirator and commander in the assassination plot of 1696 intended to kill William III