Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/23

 lier, Dangerfield was recognised by an officer of the Mint as formerly convicted of uttering false coin, was examined by the council on 27 Oct. and committed to Newgate for having forged treasonable papers and fixed them in Mansell's chamber. Two days later Sir William Waller searched Mrs. Cellier's house, and found therein, concealed at the bottom of a meal-tub, the ‘little paper book, tied with red ribbons,’ containing ‘the model of the designed plot against the protestants.’ The book had been given to her by Dangerfield, with directions to hide it. He had been false to everybody throughout. In March 1680, the day after he had obtained the king's pardon in order to gain acceptance as a witness, Dangerfield appeared against Webb of Peterley, Buckinghamshire, for harbouring a Romish priest known as Jean or Jane, but acquittal followed from lack of sufficient evidence (, Brief Relation, i. 39). On 11 June 1680 Mrs. Elizabeth Cellier stood her trial for high treason at the King's Bench. Dangerfield appeared as a witness. Sir William Scroggs denounced him as a man of infamous character, unworthy of the least credit. Mrs. Cellier was acquitted, and Dangerfield committed to the King's Bench prison (ib. i. 47). At the trial of Roger Palmer, earl of Castlemaine, on 23 June 1680, Dangerfield again appeared, having on the 16th shown a pardon from a Newgate gaol delivery, and supported Oates as second witness, Bedloe being already tainted. Scroggs again attacked the credibility of so often convicted a criminal, with sixteen evil records. Sir T. Raymond coincided, and Castlemaine was acquitted (, State Trials, vii. 1112). Dangerfield was examined at the bar of the House of Commons, 26 Oct. 1680, and made distinct charges against the Duke of York, the Countess of Powis, and the Earl of Peterborough, as having been privy to the Sham Plot (see Information of Thomas Dangerfield, gent., 1680). Mrs. Cellier having exposed his character in ‘Malice defeated’ (1680), he published a counter attack, viz. ‘An Answer to a Certain Scandalous late Pamphlet entitled “Malice defeated,” 1680.’ The following pamphlets had appeared in the same year, which were skilful enough to avoid the incredible extravagances of Oates and Bedloe, viz. ‘A True Narrative of the Popish Plot against King Charles I and the Protestant Religion;’ also ‘A Compleat History of the Papists’ late Presbyterian Plot discovered by Mr. Dangerfield;’ ‘The Case of Thomas Dangerfield.’ In 1681 he published ‘ More Shams still, or a further Discovery of the Designs of the Papists, by Thomas Dangerfeild’ (sic), in which he attacks E. C., a pamphleteer of the day. John Gadbury attacked him in the ‘Ephemeris for 1682,’ printed by the company of Stationers, and this was answered by ‘Animadversions upon Mr. John Gadbury's Almanack or Diary for 1682, by Thomas Dangerfeild’ (sic). London was growing unsafe for him. The Earl of Castlemaine followed up the attack made by John Gadbury with a folio pamphlet, ‘Manifesto,’ to which Dangerfield made an abusive rejoinder, viz. ‘The Grand Impostor defeated.’ On 8 Feb. 1681 he joined Oates in gaining a verdict against John Attwood, a priest, whom the king respited. He also failed against Edward Sing, whose arrest he caused on 15 Feb. 1681. These repulses made him desire country air. He kept diaries and neatly balanced accounts of his ‘motions, receipts, and expences;’ and there appears upon his papers of disbursement in the space of two years and nine months (1682–4) ‘1400l. 15s. and a halfpenny, well told’ (Dangerfield's Memoirs, 4to, 1685, where the genuine Diary of December 1684 to 19 March 1685 is printed). In a ‘Hue and Cry’ his description is given: ‘He is a proper handsome fellow. He was in second mourning and a short periwig, mounted upon a light bay, afterwards on a grey gelding.’ A pamphlet was printed by John Smith in 1685 entitled ‘Duke Dangerfield, declaring how he represented the D. of Mon[mouth] in the country, with his miraculous gift of Touching,’ &c. He hung around the neck of his dupes counterfeit half-guineas, tied with tape, and got from each person so honoured two real guineas in exchange. A pamphlet called ‘Mr. Dangerfield's Answer and Defence against a Scurrilous Pamphlet called “Duke Dangerfield's Declaration,”’ is an amusing satire, exposing his fraudulent assumption of the Duke of Monmouth's title in Cornwall, cheating an innkeeper and others. Learning that the Duke of York was about to proceed against him for ‘scandalum magnatum,’ in August 1684 Dangerfield avoided London and ‘went aside’ (Brief Relation, i. 315), but in the following March was apprehended and committed to Newgate. For having printed ‘Dangerfield's Narrative’ Samuel Heyrick was, at the instance of Peterborough, cast in 5,000l. damages. On 30 May 1685 Dangerfield was tried at the King's Bench for having written and published the same ‘scandalous libel called his “Narrative.”’ His former sworn evidence was proved against him, with his several convictions, and the witnesses heard were Lord Peterborough, Lord and Lady Powis, and Mrs. Cellier. The jury found him guilty, and an indictment for perjury was