ENGLISH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY | PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS GASCOIGNE, 2ND BT. (1596-1686), HALF-LENGTH

Fort Augustus Abbey, Inverness-shire, Scotland.

Gascoigne was the eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne (c.1556-1637) of Barnbow in the West Riding of Yorkshire and his wife Anne (c.1560-1637). In 1635 his father became the first Englishman to be made a Nova Scotian baronet. The family was Roman Catholic and paid recusancy fines continuously from 1605 until 1642. Gascoigne married Anne (c.1600-61), daughter of John Symonds of Brightwell, Oxfordshire in circa 1620. He succeeded to the baronetcy and family estates on his father's death on 3 May 1637. He continued his father's policy of improving the estates by enclosing wastes and commons, draining land, quarrying and mining, and acquiring more property. 

In 1679 two servants of Gascoigne's claimed that meetings had been held at Barnbow Hall, at which a conspiracy to kill the King and establish the Roman Catholic faith had been discussed. They implicated several others in this alleged Yorkshire plot, including Gascoigne's son Thomas, his daughter Tempest, Sir Miles Stapleton, and John Middleton of Stockhill Hall. The servants also claimed that 'the Papist's Bloody Oath of Secrecy' had been forced upon them by Gascoigne. In the climate created by the Popish Plot their accusations could not be ignored, even though Gascoigne was an unlikely conspirator - he was 83 years old, was infirm, partially deaf, and had not been south of the River Trent for thirty years. Nevertheless he was arrested on 7 July 1679 and taken to London, where he was examined by the privy council on 18 July and committed to the Tower. He was acquitted.

After his acquittal Gascoigne retired to the monastery at Lamspringe, where he was visited by William Carr, English consul at Amsterdam. Carr described him as a good and harmless gentleman, who had more integrity and piety than to be guilty of even thinking of the offences of which he had been accused. Gascoigne died at Lamspringe priory on 3 May 1686 and was buried there. 

The present composition relates to a double portrait of John Gascoigne Abbot of Lamspringe and Sir Thomas Gascoigne, today at Lotherton Hall, Leeds (inv. no. LEEAG.PA.1968.0007.0001).¹

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¹ https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/john-gascoigne-abbot-of-lamspring-and-sir-thomas-gascoigne-2nd-bt-38720