BEDLOE
,
WILLIAM
(
1650
-
1680
),
adventurer and Popish Plot informer
.
Born at
Chepstow, Mon.
He progressed from
thieving
in
England
to
swindling
on the
Continent
and, on emerging from a spell in
Valladolid prison
, achieved the rare feat of
stealing money
from
Titus
Oates
. In
Oct. 1678
, on the conclusion of a six months’ stay in
Newgate
, he embarked on an exceptionally successful career as an
informer
, by claiming to be able to reveal the facts of the murder of
Sir
Edmund Berry
Godfrey
. He gave evidence against over a dozen
priests
, and even accused the
queen
,
Catherine
of
Braganza
, of plotting to murder the
king
. He d. at
Bristol
,
20 Aug. 1680
. A contemporary considered him much superior to
Oates
in imagination and fluency of speech, and hardly inferior to him as a
liar
and a
perjurer
.
Sources:
-
Catholic Record Society
, xlvii, xlviii;
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
J. Pollock
,
The Popish Plot. A study in the history of
the reign of Charles II
.
Author:
John Martin Cleary, Cardiff
