William Bedloe Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, revealed nothing of importance. Bedloe wrote a "Narrative and impartial discovery of the horrid Popish Plot" (1679), but all his statements are extremely untrustworthy. Lady Worcester, whose husband was an indirect target of Bedloe's accusations called him "a man whose whole life has been pageantry and villainy and whose word would not have been taken at sixpence". At Oates's trial for perjury, some years after Bedloe's death, Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, who had condemned innocent men on Bedloe's accusations, called him "infamous Bedloe". William Bedloe William Bedloe (20 April 1650 – 20 August 1680)
Oak Island following year. A large part of island was owned at the time by the Monro, Lynch, Seacombe and Young families whom had been granted the land in 1759. In the early days of British settlement, the Island was known locally as "Smith's Island," after an early settler of the area named Edward Smith. Cartographer Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres renamed the Island "Gloucester Isle" in 1778. Shortly thereafter, the locally used name "Oak Island" was officially adopted for the Island. Early residents included Edward Smith in the 1760s and Anthony Vaughn Sr. in the early 1770s. In 1784, the government made