Page "Ambrose Rookwood" Paragraph 6

Ambrose and two of his brothers, Robert and Christopher, were educated by Jesuits at Saint-Omer, then in Flanders.

Both brothers became priests ( Ambrose's elder brother, Henry, became a Franciscan ), and his half-sisters Dorothea and Susanna became nuns.

Ambrose married into the Tyrwhitts, a prominent family of Catholics from Kettleby in Lincolnshire, and with his wife Elizabeth ( cousin to Robert Keyes ) had at least two sons, Robert and Henry.

According to the Jesuit Oswald Tesimond, Rookwood was " well-built and handsome, if somewhat short ", which he compensated for by his taste in extravagant clothing.

In author Antonia Fraser's opinion, this affectation was somewhat inappropriate at a time when " clothes were supposed to denote rank rather than money ".

On his father's death in 1600, Rookwood inherited Coldham Hall, which subsequently became a refuge for priests.

The following year he joined the Earl of Essex's abortive rebellion against the government, for which he was captured and held at Newgate Prison.