Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot

On the evening of 4 November 1605 a royal official, Sir Thomas Knyvett, and Edward Doubleday found Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder. Realising on the morning of 5 November that the Plot had been discovered, most of the conspirators fled. The Journal records tell what happened when the House briefly assembled on the morning following the arrest of Guy Fawkes, in a marginal note by the Clerk of the time, Ralph Ewens. This reads: 'This last night the Upper House of Parliament was searched by Sir Tho. Knevett; and one Johnson, servant to Mr Thomas Percye, was there apprehended; who had placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in the vault under the House, with a purpose to blow King and the whole Company, when they should there assemble. Afterwards divers other gentlemen were discovered to be of the Plot.'