of one Elizabeth More. Catesby informed him of Fawkes's arrest soon after midnight on 4–5 Nov., but Rookwood, being little known in London, remained to gather more certain news, and did not flee from the capital till eleven o'clock in the morning. He overtook Catesby at Brickhill in Buckinghamshire, and together they reached Holbeach. On the 7th a proclamation for his arrest was issued at London; on the following morning he was injured by an explosion of the gunpowder the conspirators had collected for their defence. In the subsequent struggle he was twice wounded, but was taken alive and imprisoned in the Tower. He was examined on 2 and 10 Dec.; his trial began on 27 Jan. 1605–6; he pleaded not guilty, was condemned, and executed in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster, with Winter, Keyes, and Fawkes, on 31 Jan. On his way from the Tower he managed to say farewell to his wife, who was lodging in the Strand; he expressed regret for his offence, and prayed that the king might live long and become a catholic. Father Greenway says he was beloved by all who knew him.
Rookwood married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, Lincolnshire, by whom he had two sons, Robert and Henry. Robert, the elder, was knighted by James I in 1624, and buried in Stanningfield church on 10 June 1679. His son Ambrose (1622–1693) married Elizabeth Caldwell of Dunton, Essex, and was father of Thomas (1658–1726), the last male Rookwood, whose daughter Elizabeth (1683–1759) married John Gage, ancestor of John Gage Rokewode [q. v.] Thomas's brother,
Ambrose Rookwood (1664–1696), born on 20 Sept. 1664, entered the army, in which he rose to be brigadier under James II, and acquired a high reputation for courage and honour. He remained an adherent of the Jacobite cause, and early in 1696 Sir George Barclay [q. v.] enlisted his services in the plot to kidnap or assassinate William III. In February Sir Thomas Prendergast [q. v.], one of the conspirators, turned king's evidence. On 27 March Rookwood was found in bed in a Jacobite alehouse, and committed to Newgate (Luttrell, iv. 35; Macaulay, ii. 564). On 7 April a true bill of high treason was found against him at the Middlesex county sessions. He was brought before the king's bench on 21 April, being the first Englishman who was tried under the new system of procedure. He pleaded not guilty, and was defended by Sir Bartholomew Shower [q. v.] and Constantine Phipps [q. v.], afterwards lord chancellor of Ireland. George Porter (fl. 1695) [q. v.], one of the principal conspirators, gave evidence against him. He was convicted, and was executed at Tyburn on 29 April. In a paper which he delivered to the sheriff at the place of execution (printed in Proc. Suffolk Archæol. Institute, iii. 306), Rookwood excused himself on the ground that he was only obeying the orders of a superior officer. Some ‘Observations’ on this paper were published in 1696 (4to).
[Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 120–47; Proc. Bury and West Suffolk Archæol. Institute, iii. 303–10; Cal. State Papers, Dom. passim; Morris's Condition of Catholics under James I; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers; Pollen's Father Henry Garnet, p. 16; Jardine's Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot; Winwood's Memorials; Gardiner's History of England; Nichols's Progress of Queen Elizabeth and of James I; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. xii. 363–4, 7th ser. viii. 442, ix. 51. What was the Gunpowder Plot? (1896) by Father John Gerard, S. J., who throws doubt on the traditional story. For the younger Ambrose see Coll. Top. et Gen. ii. 143; An Account of the Execution of Brigadier Rookwood (1696); The Arraignment, Tryal, &c. of A. Rookwood (1696).]
ROOM, HENRY (1802–1850), portrait-painter, born in 1802, was connected with a leading family of the evangelical following. He obtained some note as a painter of portraits, and received several commissions, some of his portraits being engraved. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826. He practised for some time at Birmingham. He painted a portrait of Thomas Clarkson [q. v.] for the central negro emancipation committee, and also two groups of the ‘Interview of Queen Adelaide with the Madagascar Princes at Windsor,’ and ‘The Caffre Chiefs' Examination before the House of Commons Committee.’ Many of his portraits were executed for the ‘Evangelical Magazine.’ Room died in London on 27 Aug. 1850, aged 48.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 449; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; Cat. of the Royal Academy, &c.]
ROOME, EDWARD (d. 1729), songwriter, the son of an undertaker for funerals in Fleet Street, was brought up to the law. He wrote ‘some of the papers called Pasquin, where by malicious innuendos he endeavoured to represent’ Alexander Pope ‘guilty of malevolent practices with a great man [Atterbury], then under prosecution of parliament.’ Pope retaliated by associating ‘Roome's funereal frown’ in the ‘Dunciad’ with the ‘tremendous brow’ of William Popple (1701–1764) [q. v.] and the ‘fierce eye’ of Philip Horneck (Dunciad, iii. 152).
