Baillie [Bailly], Charles (c. 1541–1625), conspirator and informer, was probably born in the Low Countries of Scottish descent. He was a good linguist, and from about 1564 found employment in the household of Mary, queen of Scots. By 1571 he was in the service of ...
12
Article
Baillie [Bailly], Charles (c. 1541–1625), conspirator and informer
Peter Holmes
Image
Bedloe, William (1650–1680)
Maker: Robert White
In
William Bedloe (1650–1680) by Robert White, pubd 1681 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Bedloe, William (1650–1680), informer and adventurer
Alan Marshall
Bedloe, William (1650–1680), informer and adventurer, was the second son of Isaac Bedloe (d. 1656). William Bedloe was born in Chepstow on 20 May 1650 and spent his early life both there and in Bristol. Much of his early life was deliberately clouded in obscurity. His own published account of his parentage and ancestry remains dubious. He claimed that his father had been a gentleman soldier who had served the king in the civil wars and whose own father was ...
Image
![Cover Blake [née Behar], George [also known as Giorgi Ivanovich Bekhter] (1922–2020)](/cover/searchableMedia/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000381584-graphic-001-thumbnail.jpg)
Blake [née Behar], George [also known as Giorgi Ivanovich Bekhter] (1922–2020)
Maker: unknown
In
George Blake (1922–2020), by unknown photographer, 1966
Hulton Deutsch/Getty Images
Article
Blake [née Behar], George [also known as Giorgi Ivanovich Bekhter] (1922–2020), intelligence officer and spy
Richard Norton-Taylor
Blake [née Behar], George [also known as Giorgi Ivanovich Bekhter] (1922–2020), intelligence officer and spy, was born on 11 November 1922 in Rotterdam, the only son and second of three children of Albert William Behar (1889–1936), a Turkish-born Sephardic Jew and naturalized Briton, and his wife, ...
Article
Blood, Thomas (1617/18–1680), adventurer and spy
Alan Marshall
Blood, Thomas (1617/18–1680), adventurer and spy, was born at Sarney, co. Meath. His early life is obscure, but it was later claimed that his father (who was possibly Neptune Blood) was a blacksmith and ironworker, 'serious, honest and of no inferior credit...
Image
Blood, Thomas (1617/18–1680)
Maker: unknown artist
In
Thomas Blood (1617/1818–1680) by unknown artist The Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge
Article
Blunt, Anthony Frederick (1907–1983), art historian and spy
Michael Kitson
revised by Miranda Carter
Blunt, Anthony Frederick (1907–1983), art historian and spy, was born at Holy Trinity vicarage, Bournemouth, Hampshire, on 26 September 1907, the third and youngest son (there were no daughters) of the Revd (Arthur) Stanley Vaughan Blunt (1870–1929) and his wife, Hilda Violet (1880–1969)...
Image
Blunt, Anthony Frederick (1907–1983)
Maker: Snowdon
Anthony Frederick Blunt (1907–1983) by Snowdon, 1963 Snowdon / Camera Press, London
Image
Burgess, Guy Francis de Moncy (1911–1963)
Maker: Ramsey & Muspratt
In
Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (1911–1963) by Ramsey & Muspratt, 1930s © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Burgess, Guy Francis de Moncy (1911–1963), spy
Sheila Kerr
Burgess, Guy Francis de Moncy (1911–1963), spy, was born on 16 April 1911 at 2 Albemarle Villas, Devonport, the elder son of Commander Malcolm Kingsford de Moncy Burgess RN and his wife, Evelyn Mary, daughter of William Gillman, gentleman. Burgess's father died in 1924 and his mother subsequently married ...
Image
Carey, James (1837–1883)
Maker: unknown engraver
In
James Carey (1837–1883) by unknown engraver, pubd 1883 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Carey, James (1837–1883), Fenian and informer
G. C. Boase
revised by R. V. Comerford
Carey, James (1837–1883), Fenian and informer, was the son of Francis Carey, a bricklayer, who migrated from Celbridge, co. Kildare, to Dublin. There his wife (whose name is not known) kept a lodging-house in James Street, where James was born to them. He had at least one brother. ...
Article
Chester, Charles (c. 1554–1604), informer and wit
Matthew Steggle
Chester, Charles (c. 1554–1604), informer and wit, probably born in Bristol, was one of ten children of Dominic Chester (d. 1575), merchant and MP, and his wife, Mary (d. 1572), the daughter of Roger Barlow, merchant and explorer, and his wife, ...
Article
Dangerfield, Thomas (1654–1685), informer
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, ...
Article
Dugdale, Stephen (d. 1683), informer
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 ...
Article
Hensey, Florence (fl. 1748–1760), physician and spy
C. L. Kingsford
revised by M. J. Mercer
Hensey, Florence (fl. 1748–1760), physician and spy, was born in co. Kildare, the son of Florence Hensey (d. 1757) of Ballycumeen, and his wife, Mary (d. 1748). Brought up as a Catholic, he moved to England when very young; he then apparently was educated at the ...
Article
Jackson, William [pseud. Scrutineer] (1737?–1795), journalist and spy
Hannah Barker
Jackson, William [pseud. Scrutineer] (1737
Image
Maclean, Donald Duart (1913–1983)
Maker: Ramsey & Muspratt
Donald Duart Maclean (1913–1983) by Ramsey & Muspratt, 1930s? © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Maclean, Donald Duart (1913–1983), diplomatist and spy
Robert Cecil
revised
Maclean, Donald Duart (1913–1983), diplomatist and spy, was born in London on 25 May 1913, the third of four sons and five children of Sir Donald Maclean (1864–1932), Liberal politician and cabinet minister, and his wife, Gwendolen Margaret, eldest daughter of Andrew Devitt JP...
12
