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
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