Stephen Dugdale

Stephen Dugdale (1640?-1683) was an English informer, and self-proclaimed discoverer of parts of the Popish Plot (which was in reality a complete fabrication). He perjured himself on numerous occasions, giving false testimony which led to the conviction and execution of numerous innocent men, notably the Catholic nobleman Lord Stafford, the Jesuit Provincial Thomas Whitbread, and the prominent barrister Richard Langhorne.

Dugdale's early life is obscure, but he was probably a native of Staffordshire, and is said to have belonged to a family of minor gentry, although little seems to be known about his parents. The favourable impression he made on the Crown authorities during the Plot suggests that he was well educated. He became a Roman Catholic convert, in 1657 or 1658 (being at that date about eighteen years of age). About the same time he met Francis Evers (or Eure), a leading Jesuit, in Staffordshire: Evers later figured in his fabricated story as one of the masterminds of the Popish Plot.

In 1677 Dugdale was steward to Walter Aston, 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar at Tixall, Staffordshire, where he cheated the workmen of their wages. In July or August, according to Dugdale, letters arrived at Tixall connected with the plot, in which the Jesuits and the Catholic lords were said to be deeply implicated. Dugdale claimed that meetings at Tixall followed in August and September 1678, and that the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was discussed. By September Dugdale found himself about to be dismissed for embezzlement (he had stolen money to cover his gambling debts) and general misconduct by Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar, who had just succeeded to his father's title. Dugdale turned on his employer, who in the prevailing public mood was extremely vulnerable to false charges of treason, as the Aston family were not only open Roman Catholics but the effective leaders of the Staffordshire Catholic community. The elder Lord Aston had been accused of recusancy in 1675, though the charges against him were quickly dropped.

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