Eastbury Manor House is a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor in Barking, now owned by the National Trust. The writer of The Haunted Palace blog traces the legend to Daniel Defoe, who in his Tour through the Eastern Counties noted that a great ancient house on the road to Dagenham was where tradition said the Gunpowder Treason Plot was first contrived and its early consultations held.
Other versions say Lord Monteagle was staying at the manor when he received the anonymous letter that exposed the plot, and that the plotters planned to return to Eastbury and watch the flash and commotion from one of its towers. The blogger points out that Monteagle said he received the letter at his town house in Hoxton, that nothing links him to residence at Eastbury, and that the only basis for the tower story is that Guy Fawkes hired a Barking boat to cross to Gravelines.
The suggested explanation is that the then owners, John and Maria Moore, were recusants related by marriage to the plotter Francis Tresham, but Tresham only learned of the plot three weeks before it was due and there is no evidence the Moores worked against the Crown. The legend is therefore contested at best. It is included as a piece of local folklore, the better known supernatural claim at the house being already recorded as a separate entry.
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