WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM BEDLOE (1650-1680)

BEDLOE (1650-1680)  , English informer, was born at Chepstow on the 20th of April 1650 . He appears to have been well educated; he was certainly clever, and after coming to London in 1670 he became acquainted with some Jesuits and was occasionally employed by them . Calling himself now Captain Williams, now Lord Gerard or Lord Newport or Lord Cornwallis, he travelled from one part of Europe to another; he underwent imprisonments for crime, and became an expert in all kinds of duplicity . Then in 1678, following the lead of Titus Oates, he gave an account of a supposed popish plot to the English government, and his version of the details of the murder of Sir E . B . Godfrey was rewarded with £5oo . Emboldened by his success he denounced various Roman Catholics, married an Irish lady, and having become very popular lived in luxurious fashion . Afterwards his fortunes waned, and he died at Bristol on the loth of August 1680 . His dying depositions, which were taken by Sir Francis North, chief justice of the common pleas, revealed nothing of importance . Bedloe wrote a Narrative and impartial discovery of the horrid Popish Plot (1679), but all his statements are extremely untrustworthy . See J . Pollock, The Popish Plot (1903) .