On 27 October 1666, Robert Hubert was hanged at Tyburn for deliberately starting the Great Fire of London — on the strength of his own confession. This episode sets out what the surviving record actually supports about that confession, his conviction, and the case for and against him, and where the evidence runs out entirely.
Claims in this episode are rated on two scales, used together but recorded separately: how well each is supported (proven, probable, possible, unsupported, or contradicted by the sources examined), and what kind of source it comes from — Tier 1 for primary records created as part of the legal or administrative process itself, Tier 2 for contemporary narratives written by people at or near the time of events, and Tier 3 for later constructions, including political commemoration, retrospective memoir, and modern scholarship. Where a source has been checked only as a catalogue description or an abstract rather than the full document, that is stated below rather than folded into the tier.
Source register
* LMA CLA/047/LJ/01/0177 — the formal indictment against Hubert. Tier 1. Alleges a thrown fireball, not entry via a window; lists names at close without labelling their role. Translated transcript examined directly; original manuscript not yet checked. Transcript, fireoflondon.org.uk
* A True and Faithful Account of the Several Informations (1667) — printed account of the parliamentary inquiry; preserves Lowman’s certificate. Tier 2. Examined directly. Oxford Text Archive
* Samuel Pepys, diary entry, 24 February 1666/7. Tier 2. Examined directly. pepysdiary.com
* Clarendon, memoir material describing Hubert. Tier 3. Reported and attributed; exact wording not checked against a scholarly edition.
* Laurence Peterson statement, dated 1681. Tier 3. Not examined directly; known only through the 1713 printed source below.
* A Protestant Monument… to the Immortal Glory of the Whiggs and the Dutch (1713). Tier 3. Catalogue description examined; full text not examined. Not established as the earliest or only surviving printed appearance of the Peterson statement. London Museum catalogue
* Pudding Lane plaque (1681). Tier 3. Catalogue description examined. London Museum catalogue
* Kate Loveman, “Who Discovered the Great Fire?” (2023). Tier 3. Examined directly. University of Leicester
* Frances E. Dolan, “Ashes and ‘the Archive’” (2001). Tier 3. Examined directly. UPenn PDF
* Alan Marshall, “The Great Fire, 1666, and the Conspiracy Mentalité in Restoration England” (2016). Tier 3. Repository metadata and author’s conference summary checked; full text not examined. Bath Spa repository
* Andrea McKenzie, “Fire, Fake News and the Standing Army” (2023). Tier 3. Accessible full-text extracts and metadata checked. ResearchGate
* Peter Hinds, “’After-Birth-Inscriptions’” (2010), in The Horrid Popish Plot, pp. 361–396. Tier 3. Abstract and publication metadata checked; full chapter not accessed. DOI
* Hubert’s examinations, BL Add MS 27962, ff. 480v–482r. Tier 1 if located. Not accessed.
