Guy Fawkes’s stepfather, who married his widowed mother, had the surname Baynbrigge.
After Edward Fawkes died, Guy’s mother, Edith, married Dionis Baynbrigge. The marriage placed Guy in a household with Catholic connections during a period when Catholic practice in England remained politically sensitive and legally restricted.
Guy had been baptised in the Church of England, but later became a Catholic. Historians commonly discuss his stepfather’s influence when describing the religious setting of Guy’s youth, while avoiding the claim that one event alone explains his conversion. Guy later attended St Peter’s School in York and served abroad as a Catholic soldier.
The surname is easy to miss because it appears in variant spellings in historical sources. Baynbrigge is the form used in the standard biographical account of Guy Fawkes. It should not be confused with the unrelated surname Bainbridge, which is also associated with people from Yorkshire.