WILLIAM, better known by his assumed title of Captain, was an infamous adventurer of low birth, who had travelled over a great part of Europe under different names and disguises, and passed himself among several ignorant persons for a man of rank and fortune. Encouraged by the success of Titus Oates, he turned general evidence, gave an account of Godfrey's murder, and added many circumstances to the narrative of Oates. These villains had the boldness even to accuse the queen of entering into a conspiracy against the king's life. A reward of L500 was voted to Bedloe by the commons; and he is said to have asserted the reality of the papist plot on his deathbed; but the whole story is so overlaid with absurdity, contradiction, and perjury, that the only thing we can be certain about respecting it is the incredible wickedness of those who were concerned in getting it up, and the inconceivable folly of those who credited their story. Bedloe died at Bristol on the 20th of August 1680. Giles Jacob informs us, that he was author of a play called The Excommunicated Prince, or the False Relict, 1679. The printer of it having, without the author's knowledge, added a second title, and called it The Popish Plot in a Play, greatly excited the curiosity of the public, who were, however, much disappointed when they found that the plan of the piece was founded on a quite different story. Anthony Wood denies the captain the merit, such as it is, of this play, and asserts that it was written partly, if not entirely, by one Thomas Walter, M.A. of Jesus College, Oxford.