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This article was originally one of a set of memoranda available only on paper in The National Archives' reading rooms. It acted as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. Please feel free to edit this page to improve the information

[edit] The deposition of Guydo Faukes prisoner in the Tower of London

SP 14/216 No.50, dated 8 November 1605. This document originally had no date. The contemporary endorsement merely says ”The deposition of Fawkes”. Under this, in a 19th century copper-plate hand is added “Nov. 8th 1605”.

The document is actually a copy of SP 14/216 No. 101, dated 17 November 1605. It was written by Levinus Munck whose position as Cecil’s personal secretary would make it “the original”. It has, in any case, a “Guido Faukes” signature. Munck’s version is also undated but the endorsement, as first added, read “Nov. 17, 1605”. At some later date “17” was scored through and replaced by “8”. This may have been done c. 1678-1680 when the Gunpowder Plot documents were being used in propaganda connected with the Titus Oates Plot. In the Tanner MSS at the Bodleian are a number of Gunpowder Plot transcripts made by Archbishop Sancroft. One of them is the first few lines of SP 14/216 No. 101, after which Sancroft broke off with the remark “This is the same as that of the 8th which was published”. He was wrong, for the Fawkes confession published in December 1605 in the “King’s Book” was that made by Munck with the date 17 November.

There are a number of published sources which relate to the Gunpowder Plot. For an account of the trials of the Gunpowder Plot see Howell’s State Trials, Vol II, 1603-1627, (London, 1816), pp. 159-358. There are many relevant documents among the State Papers held at this office. These are given in abstract form in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I 1603-1610. This office also holds transcripts of letters and papers preserved at Montacute House relating to the Gunpowder Plot under the reference PRO 31/6/1. The trial documents of the conspirators are among King’s Bench records. The documents of the trial of Guy Fawkes are under reference KB 8/59, those for the trial Father Henry Garnett under KB 8/61 and Sir Evarard Digby under KB 8/60.

Online documents:

• declaration of Guy Fawkes from SP 14/216, fo90 in Crime and Punishment
• Was Guy Fawkes tortured?
• Confession of Guy Fawkes from Treasurers from The National Archives

Listen to the podcast The gunpowder plot: key documents and hidden voices. James Travers selects some of the key documents and shows that beneath the noise of the ideological debate, we can hear the principal characters speaking in their own words.