Guy's father was a church lawyer who lived in Stonegate (near where numbers 32-34 stand today). Guy went to the 'York Free School', the predecessor of St Perter's School, just outside the city walls. Whilst there, Guy made friends with john and Christopher Wright who were Roman Catholics. Guy's father died when he was nine and his mother married Denis Bainbridge,also a Roman Catholic. In 1591 Guy soid a house he had inherited in Clifton for nearly €30. He than went to fight for the Spanish against the Protestants in the Betherlands where he became an explosives expert.