William Bedloe

[5] 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 Edmund Berry Godfrey was rewarded with £500.

While some government officials, like Henry Coventry, were wary of relying on the testimony of such a notorious criminal, the general view was that he was too valuable as a corroborative witness to Oates to be disregarded.

[7] However, his testimony was usually of little value, apart from during the trial of Berry, Green and Hill for Godfrey's murder, of which he may have had some personal knowledge: as a witness, he was rambling and incoherent, and had a habit of dragging in irrelevant grievances and private feuds.

[8] Emboldened by his success he denounced various Roman Catholics, married an Irish woman named Anna Purefoy, and having become very popular lived in luxurious fashion.

[4] Lady Worcester, whose husband was an indirect target of Bedloe's accusations called him "a man whose whole life has been pageantry and villainy and whose word would not have been taken at sixpence".