Berkenhead, William (bap. 1648, d. 1701), Jacobite spy, was apparently born at Northwich in Cheshire and baptized there in Witton Chapel on 3 April 1648. His parents were Randolph Berkenhead, the earl of Derby's bailiff in Northwich, and his wife, Elizabeth Harcourt, one of the ...
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Alan Marshall
Dangerfield, Thomas (1654–1685), informer, was born in the parish of Holy Cross, Waltham, Essex, on 7 July 1654, the son of Thomas Dangerfield (d. 1680) and his wife, Apollina. His father was apparently an honest gentleman of Cromwellian sympathies but, according to a hostile account of his early years, ...
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Alan Marshall
Dugdale, Stephen (d. 1683), informer, may have come from a minor gentry family of Staffordshire, but his parentage is unknown. He later claimed that as a young man he was converted to Roman Catholicism by a priest named Knight, and was in his care until ...
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Jackson, William [pseud. Scrutineer] (1737
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Richard S. Peterson
Marsh, Walter (bap. 1560, d. 1595), spy and protestant martyr, was baptized on 17 October 1560 at St Stephen, Coleman Street, London, the third or fourth of the four children of John Marsh (b. before 1516, d. 1579), MP, mercer, and governor of the ...
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Titus Oates (1649–1705) by Robert White, 1679 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Alan Marshall
Oates, Titus (1649–1705), informer, was born at Oakham, Rutland, a younger son of Samuel Oates (bap. 1614, d. 1683), Baptist preacher, and his wife, Lucy (d. in or after 1697), a midwife from Hastings. His father, son of a Church of England...
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Théveneau de Morande, Charles-Claude (1741–1805), writer and spy, was born on 9 November 1741 in Arnay-le-Duc in Burgundy, probably at 22 rue St Honoré, the eldest child of Louis Théveneau (bap. 1715, d. 1772), a notary, and his wife, Philiberte Belin (...
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David J. Duncan
Udall [Uvedale], William [pseud. William Stranguage] (fl. c. 1595–1636), historian and informer, was born into the influential Udall (or Uvedale) family, active in and around the echelons of power. According to his own recollections, he had a very good education and a Catholic upbringing in ...
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(William) John Christopher Vassall (1924–1996) by F. Shepherd, 1975 © News International Newspapers Ltd
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Peter Martland
Vassall [later Phillips], (William) John Christopher (1924–1996), Admiralty official and spy, was born on 20 September 1924 at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where his father, William Vassall, was a long-serving chaplain and his mother, Mabel Andrea Sellicks, was a nurse. Educated at a boarding-school at ...
