The writer of the notice of Sir Everard Digby in the _Biographia Britannica_[6] appears to have believed his father to have been a Protestant; but on what grounds he does not state. So familiar a friend as Father Gerard is unlikely to have been mistaken on this point. Possibly, however, in speaking of his "parents," he may have meant his forefathers rather than his own father and mother. This seems the more likely because, after his father's death, when he was eleven years old, Sir Everard was brought up a Protestant. In those times wards were often, if not usually, educated as Protestants, even if their fathers had been Catholics; but if Sir Everard's mother had been remarkable for her "piety" as a Catholic, and one of the "noted and known Catholics" in her county, we might expect to find some record of her having endeavoured to induce her son to return to the faith of his father, as she lived until after his death. The article in the _Biographia_ states that Sir Everard was "educated with great care, but under the tuition of some Popish priests": Father Gerard, on the contrary, says that he "was not brought up Catholicly in his youth, but at the University by his guardians, as other young gentlemen used to be"; and in his own _Life_,[7] he speaks of him as a Protestant after his marriage. Lingard also says[8] that "at an early age he was left by his father a ward of the crown, and had in consequence been educated in the Protestant faith." I can see no reason for doubting that this was the case. [6] Vol. iii. p. 1697. [7] _Life of Father John Gerard_, p. clii. [8] _History of England_, Vol. vii. chap. i. At a very early age, Everard Digby was taken to the Court of Queen Elizabeth, where he became "a pensioner,"[9] or some sort of equivalent to what is now termed a Queen's page. He must have arrived at the Court about the time that Essex was in the zenith of his career; he may have witnessed his disgrace and Elizabeth's misery and vacillation with regard to his trial and punishment. He would be in the midst of the troubles at the Court, produced by the rivalry between Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Charles Blount; he would see his relative, Cecil, rapidly coming into power; he could scarcely fail to hear the many speculations as to the successor of his royal mistress. [9] S. P. James I., Gun. P. Book, Part II. No. 135, Exam, of Sir E. Digby--"He confesseth that he was a pencon to Quene Elizabeth about six yeres, and tooke the othe belonging to the place of a pencioner and no other."