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OATES, TITUS (1649-1705)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 939 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OATES, See also:TITUS (1649-1705) , See also:English conspirator, was the son of See also:Samuel Oates (1610—1683), an Anabaptist preacher, See also:chaplain to See also:Pride, and afterwards See also:rector of All See also:Saints' See also:Church, See also:Hastings. He was admitted on the 11th of See also:June 1665 to See also:Merchant Taylors' school, having, according to one authority, been previously at See also:Oakham. There he remained a See also:year, more or less, and " seems afterwards to have gone to Sedlescombe school in See also:Sussex, from whence he passed to See also:Caius See also:College, See also:Cambridge, on the 2gth of June 1667, and was admitted a See also:sizar of St See also:John's, on the 2nd of See also:February 1668-1669, aged 18." Upon very doubtful authority he is stated to have been also at See also:Westminster school before going to the university. On leaving the university he apparently took See also:Anglican orders, and officiated in several parishes, Hastings among them. Having brought malicious charges in which his See also:evidence was rejected, he narrowly escaped See also:prosecution for See also:perjury. He next obtained a chaplaincy in the See also:navy, from which he appears to have been speedily dismissed for See also:bad conduct with the reputation of worse. He now, it is said, applied for help to. Dr See also:Israel Tonge, rector of St See also:Michael's in See also:Wood See also:Street, an honest See also:half-crazy See also:man, who even then was exciting See also:people's minds by giving out quarterly " See also:treatises in See also:print to alarm and awake his See also:majesty's subjects." Oates offered his help, and it was arranged that he should pretend to be a See also:Roman See also:Catholic so as the better to unearth the Jesuit plots which possessed Tonge's See also:brain. Accordingly he was received into the church by one See also:Berry, himself an apostate, and entered the Jesuit College of See also:Valladolid as See also:Brother See also:Ambrose. Hence he was soon expelled. In See also:October 1677 he made a second application, and was admitted to St Omer on loth See also:December. So scandalous, however, was his conduct that he was finally dismissed in 1678.

Returning in June 1678 to Tonge, he set himself to forge a See also:

plot by piecing together things true and false, or true facts falsely interpreted, and by inventing treasonable letters and accounts of preparations for military See also:action. The whole See also:story was written by Oates in See also:Greek characters, copied into English by Tonge, and finally told to one of See also:Charles II.'s confidential servants named See also:Kirkby. Kirkby having given the See also:king his irrformation, Oates was sent for (13th See also:August), and in a private interview gave details, in See also:forty-three articles, of the plot and the persons who had engaged to assassinate Charles. The See also:general improbability of the story was so See also:manifest, and the discrepancies were so glaring, that neither then nor at any subsequent See also:time did Charles See also:express anything but amused sativa, with two fertile florets, and one terminal, rudimentary. incredulity. To bolster up the See also:case a fresh packet of five forged letters was concocted (31st August); but the See also:forgery was trans-See also:parent, and even See also:Sir See also:William See also:Jones, the See also:attorney-general, though a violent upholder of the plot, dared not produce them as evidence. Oates now (6th See also:September) made an See also:affidavit before Sir Edmond Berry See also:Godfrey (q.v.) to an improved edition of his story, in eighty-one articles. Among the persons named was Coleman, secretary to the duchess of See also:York, whom Godfrey knew, and to whom he sent word of the charges. Coleman in turn informed the See also:duke, and he, since the immediate exposure of the plot was of the utmost consequence to him, induced Charles to compel Oates to appear (28th September) before the privy See also:council. Here Oates delivered himself of a story the falsehood of which was so obvious that the king was able to expose him by a few See also:simple questions. At this moment an See also:accident most fortunate for Oates took See also:place. Amongst the papers seized at his See also:request were Coleman's, and in them were found copies of letters written by the latter to Pere la See also:Chaise, suggesting that See also:Louis should furnish him with See also:money, which he would use in the See also:French and Catholic See also:interest among members of See also:parliament.

Among them, too, were these passages: " Success will give the greatest See also:

blow to the See also:Protestant See also:religion that it has received since its See also:birth "; " we have here a mighty See also:work upon our hands, no less than the See also:conversion of three kingdoms, and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a pestilent See also:heresy, which has so See also:long domineered over See also:great See also:part of the See also:northern See also:world." The See also:credit of Oates was thus, in the eyes of the people, re-established, and Coleman and others named were imprisoned. Charles was anxious for his brother's See also:sake to bring the See also:matter to a conclusion, but he dared not appear to stifle the plot; so, when starting for See also:Newmarket, he See also:left orders with See also:Danby (see See also:LEEDS, DUKE OF,) that he should finish the investigatiog at once. But Danby purposely delayed; an See also:impeachment was See also:hanging over his See also:head, and anything which took men's minds off that was welcome. On the 12th of October occurred the See also:murder of Godfrey, and the excitement was at its highest See also:pitch. On the 21st of October parliament met, and, though Charles in his speech had barely alluded to the plot, all other business was put aside and Oates was called before the See also:House. A new See also:witness was wanted to support Oates's story, and in See also:November a man named William See also:Bedloe came forward. At first he remembered little; by degrees he remembered everything that was wanted. Not even so, however, did their witness agree together, so, as a bold stroke, Oates, with great circumstantiality, accused the See also:queen before Charles of high See also:treason. Charles both disbelieved and exposed him, whereupon Oates carried his See also:tale before the House of See also:Commons. The Commons voted for the queen's removal from See also:court, but, the Lords refusing to concur, the matter dropped. It was not, however, until the 18th of See also:July 1679 that the slaughter of See also:Jesuits and other Roman Catholics upon Oates's testimony and that of his accomplices was to some extent checked. Sir See also:George Wakeman, the queen's physician, was accused of purposing to See also:poison the king, and the queen was named as being concerned in the plot.

The refusals of Charles to credit or to countenance the attacks on his wife are the most creditable episodes in his See also:

life: See also:Scroggs had intimation that he was to be lenient. Sir See also:Philip See also:Lloyd proved Oates to have perjured himself in open court, and Wakeman was acquitted. On the 26th of June 1680, upon Oates's testimony, the duke of York was presented as a See also:recusant at Westminster. But the panic had now worn itself out, and the importance of Oates rapidly declined; so much so that after the See also:dissolution in 1682 he was no more heard of during Charles's reign, but enjoyed his See also:pension of £600 or boo, it is uncertain which, in quiet. Shortly before the See also:death of Charles, See also:James brought, and won, a See also:civil action against Oates, with See also:damages of £roo,000; in See also:default of See also:payment Oates was taken to See also:prison; while there he was indicted for perjury, and was tried in May 1685, soon after the See also:accession of James II. He was convicted and received a severe See also:sentence, with repeated floggings, the See also:execution of which was expected to kill him, andwhich was rigorously carried out; but to the astonishment of all he survived. Oates was in prison for three and a half years. Upon the See also:flight of James, and during the excitement against the Catholics, he partially gained his See also:liberty, and brought an See also:appeal against his sentence before the Lords, who, while admitting the sentence to be unjust, confirmed it by a See also:majority of See also:thirty-five to twenty-three. The Commons, however, passed a See also:bill annulling the sentence; and a See also:conference was held in which the Lords, while again acknowledging that legally they were wrong, adhered to their former determination. The matter was finally settled by Oates receiving a royal See also:pardon, with a pension of £300 a year. The See also:remainder of his life was spent in retirement, varied by a See also:good See also:deal of sordid intrigue. In 1691 he became acquainted with William See also:Fuller, whom he induced to forge another plot, though not with the success he had himself attained.

He married a wealthy widow in 1693, but his extravagance soon brought him into straits. In 1696 he dedicated to William III. a See also:

book called Eikon Basilike, an elaborate See also:tissue of invection against " the See also:late king James." In 1698 he obtained See also:admission as a member of the Baptist Church, and used to preach at Wapping; but in 1701, as the result of a See also:financial See also:scandal, he was formally expelled from the See also:sect. He died on the 12th of July 1705. AuTxoRITIES.—Oates's, See also:Dangerfield's and Bedloe's Narratives; See also:State Trials; See also:Journals of Houses of Parliament; See also:North's Examen; the various See also:memoirs and diaries of the See also:period; Fuller's Narrative; See also:Dryden's See also:Absalom and Achitophel; See also:Burnet's See also:History; See also:Narcissus See also:Luttrell's Relation. See also:Lingard's History gives an exhaustive and See also:trust-worthy See also:account of the Popish terror and its victims; and the See also:chief incidents in Oates's career are graphically described by See also:Macaulay. On the question of the place of his See also:education see Notes and Queries (22nd December 1883). See also T. Seccombe's See also:essay in Twelve Bad Men (1894), where a bibliography is given.

End of Article: OATES, TITUS (1649-1705)

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