Northumberland's conspiracy he was released on 18 Oct. following (Acts P.C. 1552-4, p. 315; Machyn, Diary, p. 39; Chron. Queen Jane, pp. 32. 175).
Dudley does not appear to have taken any part in Wyatt's conspiracy, but the pressure of debt drove him into treason. Early in 1556 he seems to have been outlawed on account of these debts, and about the same time he devised his plot for robbing the exchequer, marrying the princess Elizabeth to Courtenay, and deposing Philip and Mary. His principal associates were John Throckmorton, Christopher Ashton, his brother-in-law, Sir Henry Killigrew [q. v.], Sir Anthony Kingston [q. v.], and Richard Uvedale [q. v.] With Uvedale's help Dudley crossed to France to seek aid from Henry II, but his plot was betrayed in March, and on 4 April Dudley was proclaimed a traitor. On the 8th Nicholas Wotton [q. v.] was ordered to demand his extradition, but the French king received him well, gave him fifteen hundred crowns, and made him a gentleman of the privy chamber. Dudley continued his intrigues in France, tampering with the English garrisons at Calais, Guisnes, and Hammes, where his brother Edward (Sutton) de Dudley, baron Dudley, was captain. He also appears to have taken to the sea and joined the French in plundering English and Spanish commerce (Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, i. 101 n., 132). He remained in Henry's service after Elizabeth's accession, and on 7 June 1559 was reported to be practising 'for new credit, especially with the cardinal of Lorraine and the duke of Guise' (Cal. State Papers, For. 1558-9, p. 305). In the same month he made overtures to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton [q. v.] for re-entering the English service, but in November 1561 he was in prison in the Chatelet for debt (ib. 1561-2, p. 418). He seems, however, to have returned to England before 1564 (Cal. Simancas MSS. i. 364) and to have died soon afterwards. He is said to have married a sister of his fellow-conspirator, Christopher Ashton, but is not known to have left issue.
Dudley has been generally confused with his distant relative, Lord Henry Dudley (1531 P-1557), the fourth son of the duke of Northumberland, who was arrested in England on 25 July 1553 for complicity in his father's conspiracy and imprisoned in the Tower. On 13 Nov. following he was tried for treason with his brothers, and was condemned to be hanged at Tyburn ('Baga de Secretis' in Dep. Keeper's Fourth Rep., App. ii. 237-8). He was pardoned in the following year, and on 5 June 1554 was permitted to hear mass in the Tower chapel. After his release he joined the English forces fighting with the Spanish against France, and was killed at the battle of St. Quintin on 10 Aug. 1557. He married Margaret, only daughter of lord-chancellor Audley, but left no issue, his widow marrying as her second husband Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk [q. v.] (Machyn, Diary, pp. 37, 48, 147, 150, 359; Chron. Queen Jane, pp. 27, 32; Acts P.O. 1554-6, pp. 33, 101; Braybrooke, Audley End, pp. 27, 296).
[Authorities cited; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547-80, For. 1547-70, and Venetian vol. vi.; William Salt, Archæol. Soc. Publ. ix. 98-104; Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 112, 113, 116; Twamley's Hist. of Dudley Castle; Adlard's Button-Dudleys; Verney Papers (Camden Soc.); Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 348, 477, xii. 58.]
DUFF, Sir ROBERT WILLIAM, for some time styled Robert William Duff Abercromby (1835–1895), governor of New South Wales, born at Fetteresso in Kincardineshire on 8 May 1835, was the only son of Arthur Duff (d. 1859) of Glassaugh in Banffshire, by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1838), daughter of John Innes of Corvie, Kincardineshire. His father assumed the name of Abercromby on succeeding to the estates of his mother, Mary, wife of Robert William Duff (d. 1834), and only child of George Morrison of Haddo, by his wife Jane, eldest daughter of General James Abercromby (d. 23 April 1781) of Glassaugh. Robert was educated at Blackheath school, and in 1848 entered the navy. He attained the rank of sub-lieutenant in May 1854, and that of lieutenant on 5 Jan. 1856, and retired with that of commander in 1865. The death of his uncle, Robert Duff, on 30 Dec. 1870, made him owner of Fetteresso, and on succeeding him he discontinued the use of the surname Abercromby.
On 1 May 1861 he was returned to parliament for Banffshire in the liberal interest, and retained his seat until his appointment as governor of New South Wales. He was appointed junior lord of the treasury in 1882, acting as liberal whip, a post which he held until the defeat of the government in June 1885. On Gladstone's resuming office he was nominated junior lord of the admiralty on 15 Feb. 1886, going out of office in July. In 1892 Duff was made a privy councillor, and offered a post in the household, which he declined.
On 23 Feb. 1893 he was appointed governor of New South Wales as successor to Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, seventh earl of Jersey. He arrived at Sydney in
