Stephen Dugdale

Dugdale claimed that meetings between the conspirators at Tixall followed in August and September 1678, and that the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was discussed.

[1] His initial reception by the Government was extremely favourable: he was "a man of sense and temper", intelligent, educated and well-spoken, in marked contrast to the disreputable earlier informers like Titus Oates.

His testimony, in the early stages, was so plausible that even Charles II, who had previously been a complete sceptic on the subject, "began to think there was somewhat in the Plot";[2] while Chief Justice William Scroggs found him entirely convincing, as did many others, for "somewhat in his air disposed people to believe him".

All six men were found guilty and executed, although they were spared the usual horrors of a traitor's death: the King (who was convinced of their innocence) as an act of clemency ordered that they not be hung drawn and quartered, but allowed to hang until they were dead.

At the trial of Sir George Wakeman, from 18 July, Dugdale gave evidence against the accused; but he was already falling into discredit (his claim that all Protestants in England were to be massacred if the Plot succeeded was too much even for Lord Chief Justice Scroggs to swallow) and an acquittal followed.

As the public gradually became more sceptical about the reality of the plot, Lord Aston, who had accidentally launched Dugdale's career as an informer by dismissing him, was able to gain his freedom on bail.

As a first step in bringing down Shaftesbury, Dugdale gave evidence against his fellow informer Stephen College at the Old Bailey, when a verdict of Ignoramus (i.e. we find no case against the accused) was returned by the grand jury, 8 July 1681.

At the later trial at Oxford of College (the Crown having simply ignored the grand jury's finding that he had no case to answer), Dugdale swore against him, but came into direct conflict with his old associates like Titus Oates.