Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet

Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet (1596–1686) was an English Baronet, a prominent member of the Gascoigne family and a survivor of the Popish Plot, or as it was locally known "the Barnbow Plot".

Background He was the eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne, 1st Baronet, of Barnbow and Parlington Hall, Yorkshire, the head of a devoutly Roman Catholic family (Sir John himself was a convert to Catholicism), and his wife Anne Ingelby of Lawkland Hall. As was common with Yorkshire recusant families then, nearly all of Thomas's younger siblings entered the religious life, apart from his sister Anne, who married George Thwing, and was the mother of the martyr Fr. Thomas Thwing. One of his sisters Catherine Gascoigne went abroad to become an abbess at Cambrai and Justina was prioress of the convent in Paris when she died on 17 May 1690. Three of his sons took religious orders including John (1598–1681) who became the abbot of the Benedictines at Lamspringe Abbey.

After succeeding to the title in 1637 Sir Thomas spent much of his life quietly managing his estates and his lucrative colliery: during the Popish Plot, a major part of his defence against the charge of conspiracy was that he almost never left home, and had not been in London for many years, so that his value as a conspirator was non-existent. J.P. Kenyon observed that Thwing was executed for conspiracy, despite the logical difficulty of a conspiracy without any other conspirators.

Death and family Gascoigne left England for good shortly after his acquittal and settled in Germany. He died in 1686 at Lamspringe Abbey near Hildesheim, a Benedictine house of which his brother John, who died in 1681, had been Abbot. ) that helped found the Bar Convent at Micklegate Bar in York. This money was also put towards the creation of Bar Convent Girls School, the first Catholic school for girls in England. The school survives as a mixed secondary school, All Saints Roman Catholic School.

The British consul at Amsterdam, who visited him at his last refuge in Lamspringe Abbey, called him "a very good, harmless gentleman", who was clearly innocent of the crimes of which he had been accused.