Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/755

GATES 697 GATES, TITUS (c. 1650 to 1705), was, according to one account, the son of an Anabaptist preacher, chaplain to Pride, and, according to another, of Samuel, the rector of All Saints Church, Hastings. He was admitted on llth June 1665 to Merchant Taylors , having, according to one authority, been previously at Oakham. There he remained a year, more or less, "and seems afterwards to have gone to Sedlescombe school in Sussex, from whence he passed to Caius College, Cambridge, on 29th June 1667, and was admitted a sizar of St John s, 2d February 1668/9, aged 18." Upon very doubtful authority he is stated to have been also at Westminster School before going to the uni versity. On leaving the university he apparently took Anglican orders, and officiated in several parishes, Hastings among them. Having brought malicious charges in which his evidence was rejected, he narrowly escaped prose cution for perjury. He next obtained a chaplaincy in the navy, from which he appears to have been speedily dismissed for bad conduct and with the reputation of worse. He now, it is said, applied for help to Dr Tonge, rector of St Michael s in Wood Street, an honest half -crazy man, who even then was exciting people s minds by giving out quarterly " treatises in print to alarm and awake his majesty s subjects." Gates offered his help, and it was arranged that he should pretend to be a Roman Catholic so as the better to unearth the Jesuit plots which possessed Tonge s brain (Lingard). Accordingly he was received into the church by one Berry, himself an apostate, and entered the Jesuit College of Valladolid as Brother Ambrose. Hence he was soon expelled. In October 1677 he made a second application, and was admitted to St Omer on 10th Decem ber. 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 plot by piecing together things true and false, or true facts falsely interpreted, and by inventing treasonable letters and accounts of prepara tions for military action. The whole story was written by Gates in Greek characters, copied into English by Tonge, and finally told to one of Charles II. s confidential servants named Kirkby (Lingard). Kirkby having given the king his information, Gates was sent for (13th August), and in a private interview gave details, in forty-three articles, of the plot and the persons who had engaged to assassinate Charles. The general improbability of the story was so manifest, and the discrepancies were so glaring, that neither then nor at any subsequent time did Charles express any thing but amused incredulity. To bolster up the case a fresh packet of five forged letters was concocted (31st August) ; but the forgery was transparent, and even Sir William Jones, the attorney-general, though a violent upholder of the plot, dared not produce them as evidence. Gates now (6th September) made an affidavit before Sir Edmonclbury Godfrey to an improved edition of his story, in eighty-one articles. Among the persons named was Coleman, secretary to the duchess of York, whom Godfrey knew, and to whom he sent word of the charges. Coleman in turn informed the duke, and he, since the immediate exposure of the plot was of the utmost consequence to him, induced Charles to compel Gates to appear (28th September) before the privy council. Here Gates delivered himself of a story the falsehood of which was so obvious that the king was able to expose him by a few simple questions. At this moment an accident most fortunate for Gates took place. Amongst the papers seized at his request were Coleman s, and in them were found copies of letters written by the latter to Pere la Chaise, suggesting that Louis should furnish him with money, which he would use in the French and Catholic interest among members of parliament. Among them, too, Avere these passages: "Success will give the greatest blow to the Protestant religion that it has re ceived since its birth"; "we have here a mighty work upon our hands, no less than the conversion of three kingdoms, and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a pestilent heresy, which has so long domineered over great part of the northern world." The credit of Gates Avas thus, in the eyes of the people, re-established, and Coleman and others named Avere imprisoned. Charles Avas anxious for his brother s sake to bring the matter to a conclusion, but he dared not appear to stifle the plot ; so, Avhen starting for Newmarket, he left orders with Danby that he should finish the investigation at once. But Danby purposely delayed ; an impeachment was hanging over his head, and anything Avhich took men s minds off that Avas Avelcome. Possibly, too, he was sincerely desirous of frustrating Charles s Catholic sympathies and secret dealings Avith France. Shaftesbury, with very different vieAvs, Avas eager in his patronage of the plot and its founder. On 12th October occurred the murder of Godfrey, and the excitement Avas at its highest pitch. That Gates could ever have induced any one to believe in his tales is incred ible to one who does not recollect the victories of Catholic France, the relaxing of the penal laAvs, the activity of the Jesuits, the fear of a standing army and of James, the agitation of the opposition led by Shaftesbury, and the ignorance and apprehension of the designs of the court. On 21st October parliament met, and, though Charles in his speech had barely alluded to the plot, all other business AA as put aside and Gates Avas called before the House. Here he gave details of a pretended apportioning by Oliva, the general of the Jesuit order, of all the chief posts to leading Roman Catholics in the country. The proceedings Avhich followed are best read in the parlia mentary history. A new witness Avas AA anted to support Oates s story, and in November Bedloe came forAA-ard. At first he remembered little ; by degrees he remembered everything that Avas Avanted. Not even so, hoAvever, did their Avitness agree together, so, as a bold stroke, Gates, Avith great circumstantiality, accused the queen before Charles of high treason. Charles both disbelieved and exposed him, Avhereupon Gates carried his tale before the House of Commons. The Commons A oted for the queen s removal from court, but, the Lords refusing to concur, the matter dropped. It Avas not, hoAvever, until 18th July 1679 that the slaughter of Jesuits and other Roman Catholics upon Oates s testimony and that of his accomplices Avas to some extent checked. Sir George Wakeman, the queen s physician, Avas accused of purposing to poison the king, and the queen Avas named as being concerned in the plot. The refusals of Charles to credit or to countenance the attacks on his Avife are the most creditable episodes in his life. Scroggs had intimation that he Avas to be lenient. Sir Philip Lloyd proved Gates to have perjured himself in open court, and Wakeman AA r as acquitted. On 26th June 1680, upon Oates s testimony, the duke of York was pre sented as a recusant at Westminster, and in November the informer gave evidence in the trial of Strafford. But the panic had now worn itself out, and the importance .of Gates rapidly declined ; so much so that after the dissolu tion in 1682 he Avas no more heard of during Charles s reign, but enjoyed his pension of 600 or 900, it is un certain which, in quiet. Shortly before the death of Charles, James brought, and Avon, a civil action against Gates, with damages of 100,000; in default of payment Gates was taken to prison ; Avhile there he was indicted for perjury, and was tried in May 1685, soon after the acces sion of James II. He Avas conA-icted, and received an aAvful sentence, the execution of Avhicli Avas expected to kill him, and Avhich was rigorously carried out; but to the astonishment of all he survived. Gates was in prison for three and a half years. L T pon XVII. 88