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Titus Oates standing in the pillory surrounded by medaillons of people executed as a result of the Popish Plot in 1678. Etching with engraving. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Titus Oates was a homosexual renegade Anglican parson with a capacious memory and a fertile imagination, who revealed the Popish Plot through an intermediary in 1678 and subsequently invented further complications. In the ensuing popular excitement, not one person was killed on the street, but 35 Catholics were executed. After the plot faded away, Oates lost his allowance from the King in 1681. Under James II he was found guilty of perjury, fined and imprisoned for life, with regular whippings and appearances in the pillory. Under William III he was given a free pardon. He died in comparative obscurity in 1705
The surrounding medaillons show Earl William Stafford, who was executed in 1681 and others with their name, occupation and date of execution
The pillory is a contrivance for the punishment of offenders, consisting usually of a wooden framework erected on a post or pillar, and formed, like the stocks, of two moveable boards which, when brought together at their edges, leave holes through which the head and the hands of an offender where thrust, in which state he was exposed to public ridicule, insult and molestation
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