Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet (1596–1686) was an English Baronet, a prominent member of the Gascoigne family and a survivor of the Popish Plot, or as it was locally known "the Barnbow Plot". Background He was the eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne, 1st Baronet, of Barnbow and Parlington Hall, Yorkshire, the head of a devoutly Roman Catholic family (Sir John himself was a convert to Catholicism), and his wife Anne Ingelby of Lawkland Hall. As was common with Yorkshire recusant families then, nearly all of Thomas's younger siblings entered the religious life, apart from his sister Anne, who married George Thwing, and was the mother of the martyr Fr. Thomas Thwing. One of his sisters Catherine Gascoigne went abroad to become an abbess at Cambrai and Justina was prioress of the convent in Paris when she died on 17 May 1690. Three of his sons took religious orders including John (1598–1681) who became the abbot of the Benedictines at Lamspringe Abbey. After succeeding to the title in 1637 Sir Thomas spent much of his life quietly managing his estates and his lucrative colliery: during the Popish Plot, a major part of his defence against the charge of conspiracy was that he almost never left home, and had not been in London for many years, so that his value as a conspirator was non-existent. He was also a generous patron of the Franciscan order at their house near Thirsk. Popish (Barnbow) Plot During the Popish Plot, (known locally as the Barnbow Plot, from the Gascoigne family estate of that name), he was accused of conspiracy to kill King Charles II by two disgruntled former employees, Bolron and Mowbray, but was acquitted, and retired to spend his last years in Germany. As J.P. Kenyon remarks, even in the general atmosphere of anti-Catholic hysteria created by the Popish Plot, it is difficult to see how the authorities could have taken seriously such accusations against a man who was nearly 85, deaf and almost blind, who rarely visited London and indeed had scarcely left his own estate for the past 30 years. Gascoigne, ordered to stand his trial in London, sensibly demanded to be tried by a Yorkshire jury. The delay in bringing the jury down allowed him time to prepare his defence; and the judges admitted that the jurors were better equipped to decide on the credibility of witnesses, most of whom