Background
He came from an ancient Glamorganshire family, his father being a native of Sker in that county. He entered the household of Lady Molyneux, daughter of William Herbert, 1st Marquis of Powis, and remained there until the end of 1675.
He came from an ancient Glamorganshire family, his father being a native of Sker in that county. He entered the household of Lady Molyneux, daughter of William Herbert, 1st Marquis of Powis, and remained there until the end of 1675.
He spent some time in Douai at the English College, then moved to Paris. lieutenant was in Paris in about 1676 (he was vague about the date) that he claimed to have met the English Catholic peer William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford. Turbervile claimed that Stafford had tried to hire him to assassinate King Charles II of England but never explained why he waited so long to reveal the fact.
He first told this improbable tale at the Bar of the English House of Commons in November 1680.
The Commons was then seeking evidence to proceed with the long delayed trials of Stafford and the rest of the "five popish lords", which had received a serious setback from the recent death of the leading informer William Bedloe (two prosecution witnesses being necessary in a treason trial)The Commons requested the King to grant Turberville the usual royal pardon for all treasons, felonies and misdemeanors committed before the date of the pardon, and the King duly granted lieutenant Turberville duly gave evidence against Stafford at his trial before the House of Lords on a charge of high treason.
Largely on this testimony, Stafford was found guilty and beheaded on 29 December 1680. There were discrepancies between the dates Tuberville gave at the trial and those in the affidavit he had sworn previously.
Also, presumably to add convincing detail to his story (Titus Oates had always been good at this) he claimed that Stafford suffered from gout, which was untrue.
However Stafford like all those charged with treason before the Treason Acting 1695 was denied legal counsel: he did catch Turberville out in one or two mistakes, but did not exploit his advantage as a good lawyer might have. His motives were purely financial: he was a poor man, and remarked that he was fit for no trade but an informer. In 1681 the Crown at last turned on the instigators of the Plot, beginning with the unsavoury informers Edward Fitzharris and Stephen College.
After the trial of Fitzharris, Turberville reading the straws in the wind, or as Gilbert Burnet thought, being "under new management" gave evidence against College who was found guilty of treason and executed.
This led to a breach between Turberville and Titus Oates, the inventor of the Plot, whom Turberville now denounced as a villain. He also gave evidence against his former patron Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, indicted for treason in November 1681.
The following month he fell ill of smallpox and died, supposedly fulfilling a prophecy of Lord Stafford. Despite rumours that he returned to the Catholic faith at the end, in fact he was attended by Thomas Tenison, the future Archbishop of Canterbury.
To the surprise of many, he maintained to the end the truth of his charges against Stafford.
Burnet wrote that the truth of the matter was a mystery not to be solved in this life.