In 1605, the owner of Cowdray House, Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, was briefly arrested in connection with the Gunpowder Plot. He was suspected as a plotter because of his Catholic religion and connections with several of the known plotters. Among others, he had briefly employed Guy Fawkes, a native of Lewes in East Sussex, as a footman. In addition he had stayed away from Parliament on 5 November following a warning from Robert Catesby, the leader of the plot. Anthony-Maria Browne spent about a year in the Tower of London, died in 1629 and is buried in Midhurst Church. Later in the 17th century, this influence began to wane. By 1621, there were about forty households of recusants in Midhurst. In 1634, one John Arismandy appointed John Cope and Richard Shelley to administer certain moneys after his death to provide a priest for the poor Catholics of Midhurst, to say masses every week for his soul and 'my lords ancestors'. This deed was found in the 19th century in a box hidden in the chimney of an old house with rosaries and other religious objects.