Everard Digby

Sir
Everard Digby
Sir Everard Digby
	Portrait of Digby
Born	c. 1578
Died	30 January 1606 (aged 27–28); Castlebaynard Ward, City of London, Middlesex, England
Spouse	Mary Mulsho
Children	Kenelm Digby, John Digby
Parent(s)	Sir Everard Digby; Maria Neale
Motive	Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King James VI & I and members of the Houses of Parliament
Conviction	High treason
Criminal penalty	Hanged, drawn and quartered
Role	Uprising
Enlisted	21 October 1605
Date apprehended	8 November 1605

Sir Everard Digby (c. 1578 – 30 January 1606) was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Protestant household and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were converted to Catholicism by the Jesuit priest John Gerard. In the autumn of 1605, he was part of a Catholic pilgrimage to the shrine of St Winefride's Well in Holywell, Wales. About this time, he met Robert Catesby, who planned to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder, killing James I. Catesby then planned to incite a popular revolt, through which a Catholic monarch would be placed upon the English throne.

The full extent of Digby's knowledge of and involvement in the plot is unknown, but at Catesby's behest, Digby rented Coughton Court and prepared a "hunting party", ready for the planned uprising. The plot failed, however, and Digby joined the conspirators as they took flight through the Midlands, failing to garner support along their way. Digby left the other fugitives at Holbeche House in Staffordshire, and was soon captured and taken to the Tower of London.

Digby was tried on 27 January 1606. Despite an eloquent defence, he was found guilty of high treason, and three days later was hanged, drawn and quartered.