William Bedloe was an English fraudster and informer, born at Chepstow

Chepstow

Chepstow is a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye, close to its confluence with the River Severn, and close to the western end of the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway...

.

He appears to have been well educated; he was certainly clever, and after moving to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 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. In the 1670s he was gaoled for fraud and became an expert in all kinds of duplicity.

Then in 1678, following the lead of Titus Oates

Titus Oates

Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...

, he gave an account of a supposed popish plot

Popish Plot

The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...

 to the English government, and his version of the details of the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey

Edmund Berry Godfrey

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was an English magistrate whose mysterious death caused anti-Catholic uproar in England...

 was rewarded with £500.

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

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 on the 20th of August 1680. His dying depositions, which were taken by Sir Francis North

Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford

Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford PC KC was the third son of the 4th Baron North, and was created Baron Guilford in 1683, after becoming Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in succession to Lord Nottingham....

, 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.The Marchioness of Worcester, whose husband was the target of some of Bedloe's accusations called him " a man whose whole life has been a parade of villainy and whose word would not have been taken at sixpence". At
Oates's trial for perjury, Jeffreys

Jeffreys

Jeffreys is a surname, which may refer to:People: * George Jeffreys composer and organist to Charles I...

, who had happily condemned innocent men on Bedloe's accusations, called him "infamous Bedloe".