Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/142

 at others as heavy as lead,’ that he vomited a large hair broom, and did a number of other miraculous things. Baxter and Mather were so impressed that they wished to quote his case in their works on witchcraft; but Lord-chief-justice Holt is said to have discovered that the whole affair was an imposition. Dugdale seems to have been hysterical, and with the aid of his relations to have traded on the credulity of his visitors. A number of pamphlets were written, some denouncing him as a cheat, and others supporting the theory of his demoniacal possession. After the lapse of considerably more than a year the fits left him, and up to 1697, when he was last heard of, he had only had one unimportant return of them. A woodcut portrait is prefixed to Taylor's ‘Surey Impostor.’

 DUGDALE, STEPHEN (1640?–1683), informer, came first into public notice as a 'discoverer' of the so-called Popish plot. He had been converted to Romanism by one Knight, a priest, in 1657 or 1658, being at that date about eighteen years of age. Owing to Knight's infirmities Dugdale was transferred to Francis Evers, a Jesuit, in Staffordshire. He ingratiated himself into the confidence of various priests, and professed to become acquainted with plots debated at private meetings, and to have seen numerous letters. At first these were chiefly concerning money and weapons, 'that they should be in readiness with all necessaries when the king should die, to assist the duke against the protestants' (Information of 30 Oct. 1680, p. 2). In 1677 Dugdale was steward to Lord Aston at Tixall, Staffordshire, where he cheated the workmen of their wages, and was regarded as 'the wickedest man that ever lived on the face of the earth' (Sambridge's testimony at Lord Stafford's trial). In July or August letters arrived connected with the plot. The Jesuits and the catholic lords were said to be deeply implicated. Meetings at Tixall followed in August and September 1678; the death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was discussed, and money was subscribed lavishly. By September Dugdale found himself about to be dismissed for embezzlement and general misconduct. He thereupon 'made his discovery to the justices of the peace,' when they issued warrants for the apprehension of George Hobson and George North. Although he professed to have broken open letters from Paris to Evers and others, he had little but hearsay evidence, and pretended to have destroyed the most dangerous documents on the eve of his departure. He charged John Tasborough and Mrs. Ann Price with soliciting him to sign a paper of recantation, and offering him 1,000l. reward for it. In the following February these persons were tried at the king's bench, convicted, and sentenced to pay fines respectively of 200l. and 100l. Price had been Dugdale's fellow-servant and sweetheart at Tixall. Afterwards Dugdale led a shifty, vagabond life, giving evidence and writing pamphlets, at first associating chiefly with Bedloe, Oates, and Edward Turberville, but afterwards turning against Stephen College [q. v.] and confronting Oates. He gave evidence against the 'five popish lords' in October 1678. On 24 Dec. 1678 he swore an information before Thomas Lane and J. Vernon in Staffordshire. At the trial of the five Jesuits (13 June 1679, &c.) Dugdale charged two of them with consulting to bring about the assassination of Charles II. He charged Whitebread with writing a letter providing for the entertainment of 'good stout fellows,' viz. the four Irish 'ruffians' who were reported to be hired for the regicide. Next day, 14 June, at the trial of Richard Langhorn the barrister, Dugdale was a chief witness for the prosecution. Again, at the trial of Sir George Wakeman, 18 July, &c., Dugdale swore 'general evidence;' but he was already falling into discredit, and an acquittal followed. He swore, on the second day of Lord Stafford's trial, 1 Dec. 1680, that the accused had been present at the 'consults' at Tixall in September 1628, and also at Abnett's house in Stafford, where talk had been about slaying the king, and that on the 20th or 21st Stafford offered him 500l. to commit the crime. The prolonged dispute at the trial was chiefly concerning dates. But it came to light that Dugdale had tried to bribe sundry persons to give false evidence against Stafford and other persons. On the last day of the trial, while the votes were being taken, Dugdale walked about very melancholy. William Smith, late schoolmaster of Islington (who had educated Oates), asked him the reason. He replied, 'I believe he'll be 'quitted, and I am undone; but let what will come out I am ruined.' He was understood to be willing to appear against Shaftesbury, and gave evidence against Stephen College at the Old Bailey, when a verdict of Ignoramus was returned, 8 July 1681. Again on the 17th, at the Oxford trial of the same man, Dugdale swore against him, and thus came into direct conflict with his old associates. Luttrell writes that Dugdale and his fellows 'have quite lost their credit,' both with