page_title: Stephen Dugdale
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Stephen Dugdale / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: Tixall House and Gatehouse (c. 1686) by R. Plot. Tixall was the family seat of the Lords Aston of Forfar. It was in Shropshire and according to Stephen Dugdale one of the alleged meeting places of the alleged conspirators in the fictitious Popish Plot (c 1680 )
context_page_description: Stephen Dugdale was an English informer, and self-proclaimed discoverer of parts of the Popish Plot. 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.
context_section_description: 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 authorities during the Plot indicates that he was well educated and of good social standing. 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  the wealthy Catholic nobleman Walter Aston, 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar,  at his principal residence    Tixall, Staffordshire, where he cheated the workmen of their wages. In July or August, according to Dugdale, letters arrived  at Tixall connected with the  Popish Plot, in which the Jesuits and  several Catholic lords were said to be deeply implicated. Dugdale claimed that meetings  between the conspirators 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.
caption: Tixall House and Gatehouse (c. 1686) by R. Plot. Tixall was the family seat of the Lords Aston of Forfar, Dugdale's employers.
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