The Strand was originally the road from London to Westminster , from Temple Bar to Charing Cross. There were many noble residences on the south side (nearest to the Thames ) in the early seventeenth century; it was a fashionable area, which had prior to this period mainly housed the London residences of bishops. Ralegh lived at Durham House 1584-1603, and the Howards at Arundel House from 1608. The Strand was also the area of the Inns of Court, and of many public houses.

Catesby had been imprisoned for his part in the Essex rebellion, in which he had been wounded, and fined heavily. Francis Tresham was his first cousin. He died at Holbeach on 8 Nov. 1605, shot by the same bullet as Thomas Percy as they prepared to fight back-to-back.

As a prominent Catholic, Mordaunt was quickly imprisoned in Nov. 1605 on suspicion of complicity in the plot. Christiana Keyes, whose husband Robert was a conspirator, had been for a time governess to his children (Fraser, 1996, 109). He was tried in Star Chamber and condemned to the Tower ; in 1608 he was transferred to the Fleet. He was ultimately fined £10,000, but it seems likely that this was never paid.

Percy was the nephew of the conspirator Thomas Percy, who was in turn second cousin to Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland . He was in service at Essex House, the earl of Northumberland 's London home. He is mentioned in the Informations , mocking the Mayor of Plymouth 's beard.

Tresham was a first cousin of Robert Catesby , and also related to the Wintours; he too had been involved in the Essex rebellion, and imprisoned upon the death of Elizabeth . According to Fraser (1996, 145), he was only recruited to the conspiracy by Catesby on 14 Oct., 'at the home of Lord Stourton . . . in Clerkenwell'. He was originally suspected of being the author of the 'Mounteagle Letter' (Mounteagle being his brother-in-law), which alerted Salisbury to the plot. (Fraser rejects this explanation and argues instead that Tresham had warned Monteagle verbally, and that Monteagle himself faked the letter (1996, 156).) He is known to have urged the postponement or even abandonment of the plot. His name having been revealed by Guy Fawkes under torture, he was arrested in London on 12 Nov., and on 15 Nov. imprisoned in the Tower . He died there of the 'strangury' on 23 Dec., having made a lengthy deathbed confession pleading his ignorance of the details of the plot, and attempting to exculpate the various Jesuit priests implicated in it. His body was decapitated and his head displayed in Northampton.

Wintour was the younger brother of Robert Wintour, also a conspirator, and related to both Catesby and Tresham. He had fought in the Netherlands, in France and possibly even in Central Europe against the Turks (Fraser, 1996, 49), and was an accomplished linguist. In 1601 he had travelled to Spain on behalf of the Catholic faction disillusioned after the failure of the Essex rebellion, in which he had participated. After the failure of the gunpowder plot, he was among those wounded and captured at Holbeach; he was executed in Westminster Palace Yard on 31 Jan. 1606.

Bushell was a first cousin of the Wintours, and later became guardian to John Grant 's son. He had been a gentleman usher to Essex .

Grant was married to Dorothy Wintour, sister of the conspirators Robert and Thomas, and lived at Norbrook, near Snittersfield in Warwickshire. He was known as an 'intellectual' and linguist (Fraser, 1996, 113). He joined the conspiracy at the same time as Christopher Wright and Robert Wintour (according to Fraser (1996, 113), on 25 Mar. 1605). He was specifically charged with procuring war-horses from Warwick Castle . He was blinded in the accident at Holbeach (where, incredibly, damp gunpowder had been spread in front of the fire to dry out) on 7 Nov., and captured there on 8 Nov. He was executed at the western end of Paul's Churchyard on 30 Jan. 1606, and remained 'obdurate' to the last (Fraser, 1996, 232).

Known as Kit, Wright was a Yorkshireman and had been a pupil, with his brother Jack (who was also a conspirator, and who had risen with Essex ) at St Peter's School in York, with Guy Fawkes. He joined the conspiracy on 25 Mar. 1605. He was killed at Holbeach on 8 Nov. 1605.