[Life, 1671, by J. W. (probably his brother-in-law, Weaver); reproduced in great part in Clarke's Lives of Eminent Persons, 1683, i. 95; much abridged in Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 544; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, ii. 721; also abridged in Middleton's Biographia Evangelica, 1784, iii. 387 (with additions), and in Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire, 1870, p. 831; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696; Armstrong's App. to Martineau's Ordination Service, 1829, p. 78; Pishey Thompson's Hist. of Boston, 1856, p. 784; Reid's Hist. of Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Killen), 1871, p. 556; Stubbs's Hist. of Univ. of Dublin, 1889, pp. 89 sq.; Urwick's Early Hist. of Trin. Coll. Dublin, 1892, pp. 57 sq.]
WINTER or WINTOUR, THOMAS (1572–1606), conspirator, born in 1572, was a younger brother of Robert Winter of Huddington, Worcestershire. They were descended from Wintor, the castellan of Carnarvon, their name being originally Gwyntour, and their crest a falcon mounted on a white tower. The family settled at Wych in the reign of Edward I, and there remained till Roger Wintor in the reign of Henry VI married the coheiress of Huddington and Cassy (Nash, Worcestershire, i. 591). George Winter, the father of Robert and Thomas by his first wife, Jane Ingleby, was the son of Robert Winter of Cavewell, Gloucestershire, by Catherine, daughter of Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire (Foley, Records, vi. 573). The two brothers were thus related to both Robert Catesby [q. v.] and Francis Tresham [q. v.] Their sister married John Grant of Norbrook, Warwickshire, another of the gunpowder plotters.
Thomas was a short man, but ‘strong and comely, and very valiant,’ says his contemporary, Father Gerard, who adds that he had spent his youth well, was ‘very devout and zealous in his faith, and careful to come often to the sacraments’ (Gerard, Narrative, p. 58). For several years he served in the Netherlands, fighting in the army of the estates against Spain; but he had apparently quitted this service from religious scruples. He afterwards became secretary or agent of William Parker, fourth lord Monteagle [q. v.] He was an able man, an accomplished linguist, and was acquainted with foreign diplomatists. He was an inseparable friend of Catesby. A few weeks before Christmas 1600 he visited Rome for the jubilee. A Mr. Winter from Worcestershire is entered in the ‘Pilgrims' Book’ of the English College at Rome as having lodged there thirteen days from 24 Feb. 1601. In January 1602 Lord Monteagle and Catesby arranged that he should go into Spain to propose to Philip III an invasion of England in the following spring. The details of this negotiation are imperfectly known. A full statement written by Winter regarding his share in it was never made public, and is no longer extant; and the information extorted from Fawkes was at second hand. Winter, with Catesby and Tresham, had discussed the mission with Father Henry Garnet [q. v.] at White Webbs, a favourite resort of the jesuits, ten miles north of London; but Garnet, while he confessed to having written of the business to Father Joseph Cresswell [q. v.] in Spain, declared that he then believed its object was simply to obtain money for distressed catholics. Winter was accompanied on his journey by Father Oswald Greenway or Tesimond [q. v.] He spent some months at the Spanish court, but the political negotiations entrusted to him seem to have passed into the hands of Cresswell, who professed to be the representative of English catholics in Spain. Cresswell in the winter of 1602–3 urgently and persistently pressed upon the Spanish king the need of immediate intervention by arms to prevent the accession of James on the death of Elizabeth, which might take place at any moment. The plan of the Anglo-Spanish faction at that time (i.e. since July 1600) was to adopt as candidate for the English throne the infanta, with her husband the Archduke Albert, sovereigns of the Netherlands. Cresswell was kept waiting three months for his answer, when, on the advice of the Count Olivares (2 March 1603), it was resolved to drop the infanta as impracticable and to suggest to the English catholics that they should elect from their countrymen a candidate whom Spain would, on certain conditions, support (Martin Hume, Sir Walter Ralegh, 1897, pp. 235–9). Winter had returned to England before this decision had been formally announced.
Sir E. Coke declared (on the evidence of Fawkes) that Winter came ‘laden with hopes’ and with the promise of the Spanish king to send an army into Milford Haven and to contribute to the enterprise 100,000 crowns. But such report as Winter could give of the drift of Spanish policy may rather have added to the disappointment of his friends. He told Garnet, however, that Philip desired to have immediate information of the death of the queen. Meanwhile Garnet had shown to Winter, as well as to Catesby, Percy, and Father Oldcorne, the two briefs from Rome bidding catholics to withstand the succession of any one not a zealous catholic. With this on his mind, Catesby, after the accession of James, conceived the
