Lewis H. Berens - The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

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The pamphlet then details the doings of William the Conqueror, contends
that the Nobility and Gentry owe all their special privileges to his
innovations, that "their rise was the Country's ruin, and the putting
them down will be the restitution of our rights again." The very
existence of Parliaments is attributed to the uprisings of their
forefathers; and after emphasising the manner in which all power was
still secured to the King and the House of Peers, it concludes with the
following exhortation: "So when all Israel saw that the King hearkened
not unto them, the people answered the King, saying, What portion have
we in David; neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse. To your
tents, O Israel."

Within a few days of the publication of the second edition of the above
pamphlet, its author was ready with the second part, which appeared on
March 30th (1649), and was entitled:

"MORE LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE:[83:1]

Being a Declaration of the State and Condition that all Men are in
by Right. Likewise the Slavery all the World are in by their
own kind, and this Nation in particular, and by whom. Likewise
the Remedies, as Take away the Cause and the Effect will cease.

Being a Representation unto all the People of England, and to the
soldiery under the Lord General Fairfax.

THE SECOND PART.

'Whatsoever doth manifest, is Light.'--EPH. v. 13."

As this pamphlet covers much the same ground as the former, our notice
of it will be but brief. After emphasising the importance of the
observance of the Golden Rule, it declares that "All men by God's
donation are alike free by birth, and have alike privileges by virtue of
His grant." "So that for any to enclose the creation wholly from his
kind, to his own use, to the impoverishment of his fellow-creatures,
whereby they are made his slaves, is altogether unlawful. And it is the
cause of all oppressions, whereby many thousands are deprived of their
rights which God hath invested them withal, whereby they are forced to
beg or steal for want." It then details the various means taken to this
end, and declares them, as well as the kingly power which its author
holds, to be their source and origin, to be opposed to the direct
command of God as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. Hence it denounces
the oppressing privileged classes as "rebels against God's commands,"
and as "traitors against God's Annointed, Jesus Christ, who alone is
Lord and King over men, and all men are equal." The writer contends that
with the fall of the King, all the special privileges, grants, patents,
monopolies, etc., created by him, should have fallen also. But since "it
is apparent that the Grandees of the Parliament intend still to uphold
them, and to take a large share thereof unto themselves," he finds
himself forced to appeal "to all our dear Brethren in England and to the
Soldiers in the Army to stand everyone in his place to oppose all
Tyranny whatsoever and by whomsoever intended against us."

At the foot of this pamphlet we find the following notice: "Reader, You
may expect in the Third Part to have an Anatomising of all Powers that
now are, etc. And in the Fourth Part, the Grounds and Rules that all men
are to go by. Farewell." Whether these notices refer to some of
Winstanley's pamphlets, the second seems to point to _The New Law of
Righteousness_, or not, we have no means of knowing. Nor, indeed,
whether the above pamphlets were from his pen, though we strongly
believe them to have been so. In any case they seem to us to have
sufficient bearing on the Digger Movement to justify our noticing them
here.

Some six weeks later, on May 10th, yet another pamphlet appeared from
the same part of the country, entitled:

"A DECLARATION OF THE WELL-AFFECTED IN THE COUNTY OF
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE:[84:1]

Being a Representation of the Middle Sort of Men within the three
Chilterne Hundreds of Disborough, Burnum and Stoke, and part of
Ailsbury Hundred, whereby they declare their Resolution and
Intentions, with a Removal of their Grievances."

This is a very short pamphlet, of some seven pages, in which these
"Middle Sort of Men" state that they had waited for eight years for
redress of their grievances, but finding them still continue, and
expecting little good from the Parliament and the Grandees of the Army,
"finding the Grandees of the Army to be the men that hinder both the
honest soldiery that stand for absolute freedom, and doth imprison and
put them to death that are for Just Principles of Common Right and
Equity, so that those honest men are by those proud Commanders
persecuted by the name of Levellers...."[85:1]

"Therefore we declare our intentions that the World may take notice
of our principles, which are for Common Right and Freedom. And
therefore--

"1. We do protest against all Arbitrary Courts, Terms, Lawyers,
Impropriators, Lords of Manors, Patents, Privileges, Customs,
Tolls, Monopolisers, Incroachers, Enhancers, etc., or any other
interest-parties, whose powers are arbitrary, etc., as not to allow
or suffer ourselves to be inslaved by any of those parties, but
shall resist, as far as lawfully we can, all their Arbitrary
Proceedings.

"2. We protest against the whole Norman Power, as being too
intolerable a burden any longer to bear.

"3. We protest against paying Tythes, Tolls, Customs, etc.

"4 We protest against any coming to Westminster Terms, or to give
any money to the Lawyers, but will endeavour to have all our
Controversies ended by 2, 3 or 12 men of our own neighborhood, as
before the Norman Conquest.

"5. We protest against any trial by a Martial Court as arbitrary,
tyrannical and wicked, and not for a Free People to suffer in times
of peace.

"6. We shall help to aid and assist the Poor to the regaining all
their Rights, dues, etc., that do belong unto them, and are
detained from them by any Tyrant whatsoever.

"7. And likewise will further and help the said Poor to manure,
dig, etc., the said Commons, and to sell those woods growing
thereon to help them to a stock, etc.

"8. All well affected persons that joyn in Community in God's way,
as those Acts 2. v. 44, and desire to manure, dig and plant in the
waste grounds and commons, shall not be troubled or molested by any
of us, but rather furthered therein.

"We desire to go by the Golden Rule of Equity, viz., To do to all
men as we would they should do to us, and no otherwise: and as we
would tyrannise over none, so we shall not suffer ourselves to be
slaves to any whosoever."

That such views were not restricted to "the Levellers" may be inferred
from the very similar demands made in "A Petition of the Officers
engaged for Ireland," and presented to the House of Commons in July of
the same year (see Whitelocke, p. 413), from which we take the
following: "That proceedings in law may be in English, cheap, certain,
etc., and all suits and differences first to be arbitrated by three
neighbours, and if they cannot determine it, then to certify the Court."
They also "humbly pray"--"That Tithes may be taken away, and Two
Shillings in the Pound paid for all lands, out of which the Ministers to
be maintained and the Poor." This, we should think, was the first
petition to the House of Commons in favour of the Taxation of Land
Values.

In fact, religious and political speculation, as well as dissatisfaction
and discontent, were rife amongst the active and thoughtful of the
people, as well as in the Army. On the 17th of the previous month, some
of the soldiers, who, according to Gardiner,[87:1] "had resolved not to
leave England till the demands of the Levellers [the political
Levellers] had been granted--300 in Hewson's regiment alone," had
refused to go to Ireland, and had been promptly cashiered. On April 24th
a dispute about pay in one of the troops of Whalley's regiment had
resulted "in some thirty of the soldiers seizing the colours and
refusing to leave their quarters." It was not till Cromwell and Fairfax
appeared on the scene that they submitted. Fifteen of their number were
carried to Whitehall, where, on the 26th, a Court-martial condemned six
of them to death. "Cromwell, however, pleaded for mercy, and in the end
all were pardoned with the exception of Robert Lockyer, who was believed
to have been their leader." Lockyer, Gardiner continues, "though young
in years, had fought gallantly through the whole of the war. He was a
thoughtful, religious man, beloved by his comrades, who craved for the
immediate establishment of liberty and democratic order. As such he had
stood up for _The Agreement of the People_ on Corkbush Field," when
another trooper of a similar character, named Arnold, had been shot to
death, "and he now entertained against his commanding officers a
prejudice arising from other sources than the mere dispute about pay,
which influenced natures less noble than his own.... On the 27th,
Lockyer, firmly believing himself to be a martyr to the cause of right
and justice, was led up Ludgate Hill to the open space in front of St.
Paul's, and there, after expostulating with the firing party for their
obedience to their officers in a deed of murder, he was shot to death."

Lockyer's funeral took place on the 29th, and was the occasion of a
remarkable demonstration, of which we take the following account from
the pages of Whitelocke's _Memorial of English Affairs_ (p. 399):

"Mr. Lockier a Trooper who was shot to death by Sentence of the
Court Martial was buried in this manner. About one thousand went
before the Corps, and five or six in a file, the Corps was then
brought with six Trumpets sounding a Soldier's Knell, then the
Trooper's Horse came clothed all over in mourning and led by a
Footman. The Corps was adorned with bundles of Rosemary, one half
stained with blood, and the Sword of the deceased with them. Some
thousands followed in Ranks and Files, all had Sea-green and black
Ribbon tied on their Hats and to their Breasts, and the Women
brought up the Rear. At the new Church Yard in Westminster some
thousands more of the better sort met them, who thought not fit to
march through the City. Many looked on this Funeral as an Affront
to the Parliament and Army; others called them Levellers, but they
took no notice of any of them."

In view of such a manifestation of the state of public opinion, we
cannot be surprised that Winstanley's eloquent and impressive appeals
awoke a responsive echo in the minds of many who would have shrunk from
following his example, or even from publicly avowing his creed.
Moreover, the miserable condition of the masses of the agricultural
population, of which we shall give some startling evidence later on,
must have prepared a soil favourable to his self-imposed mission, to
awaken them to a knowledge both of their rights and of their duties.
Especially welcome must have been doctrines in accordance with their
simple religious beliefs, as well as with their ancient and well-founded
traditions of certain inalienable rights to the use of the land: rights
that, as they well knew, had been filched from them under cover of laws
they had no voice in making, which they did not understand, and which
were enforced upon them by the power of the sword and gallows. We must
remember, however, that though the landholders had succeeded in
impoverishing, they had not yet succeeded in degrading the people; some
remnant of the old English spirit was still left, and the Civil War had
re-awakened the old English craving for freedom, liberty, and equity.
The landholders, in their attempt to emancipate themselves from the
control of the Crown, had kindled a fire amongst the people before which
they quailed; small wonder, then, that about this time they began to
wish, to intrigue and to struggle for the re-establishment of the
Monarchy. From the time of Henry the Eighth the condition of the English
labourers had steadily worsened; it was left to the landholders after
the Restoration to complete their enslavement and degradation. When
considering Winstanley's or any other similar doctrines, the student
would do well to bear in mind Professor Thorold Rogers'
conclusions,[89:1]--conclusions arrived at after a lifelong study of the
question,--that--"I contend that from 1563 to 1824, a conspiracy,
concocted by the law and carried out by parties interested in its
success, was entered into, to cheat the English workmen of his wages, to
tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to degrade him into
irremediable poverty." Or, as he elsewhere expresses it[89:2]--"For more
than two centuries and a half the English law, and those who
administered the law, were engaged in grinding down the English workman
to the lowest pittance, in stamping out every expression or act which
indicated any organised discontent, and in multiplying penalties upon
him when he thought of his natural rights."

FOOTNOTES:

[79:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark E 475 (11).

[83:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 548 (33).

[84:1] King's Pamphlets. British Museum, Press Mark, E. 555.

[85:1] About this time, or a little later, there appeared in London an
interesting manifesto from some of the disbanded soldiers, the copy of
which in the British Museum (Press Mark, 4152. b.b. 109) bears no date,
but is addressed as follows: "To the Generals and Captains, Officers and
Soldiers of this present Army. The Just and Equal Appeal, and the state
of the Innocent Cause of us, who have been turned out of your Army for
the exercise of our pure Consciences, who are now persecuted amongst our
Brethren under the name of Quakers." Wherein they declare that "The
first cause and ground of our engagement in the late wars against the
Bishops and Prelates, and against Kings and Lords, and the whole body of
oppressors: our first engagement, we say, against these was justly and
truly upon that account of purchasing and obtaining Liberties in Civil
Rights, and also in matters of Conscience in the exercise of the worship
of God.... And we can safely say that the Liberty of Conscience and the
True Freedom of the Nations from all their oppressions was the mark at
which we aimed, and the harbour for which we hoped and the rest proposed
in our minds as the absolute end of our long and weary travel."

[87:1] _History of the Protectorate_, vol. i. pp. 50, 51.

[89:1] _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, p. 398.

[89:2] _Socialism and Land._ Essay in a Quarterly Review, _Subjects of
the Day_, part ii. p. 52.

CHAPTER IX

THE DIGGERS' MANIFESTOES

"Take notice, That England is not a Free People till the Poor that
have no land have a free allowance to dig and labor the Commons,
and so live as comfortably as the Land Lords that live in their
Inclosures. For the people have not laid out their monies and shed
their blood that their Land Lords, the Norman Power, should still
have its liberty and freedom to rule in tyranny, but that the
Oppressed might be set free, prison doors opened, and the Poor
People's heart comforted by an universal consent of making the
Earth a Common Treasury, that they may live together united by
brotherly love into one spirit, and having a comfortable livelihood
in the Community of one Earth their Mother."--WINSTANLEY, _The True
Levellers Standard Advanced_.

By the publication of his earlier pamphlets, Winstanley seems to have
attracted a small band of earnest disciples, eager by their actions to
declare their adherence to the principles he had so fearlessly and
eloquently proclaimed. However, before taking the steps they had decided
on, they deemed it necessary openly and frankly to declare their
intentions to the world, more especially to those whose individual or
class interests would be likely to be affected thereby. Hence early in
1649, probably in the last days of March or the beginning of April, they
issued a pamphlet, signed by some 46 of them, which seems mainly from
Winstanley's pen, entitled:

"A DECLARATION FROM THE POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE OF ENGLAND:[90:1]

Directed to all that call themselves or are called Lords of Manors
through this Nation, that have begun to cut, or that through
fear of Covetousness do intend to cut down the woods and trees
that grow upon the Commons and Waste Land."

The pamphlet opens with the following vigorous and pertinent words:

"We whose names are subscribed, do in the name of all the poor
oppressed people of England, declare unto you that call yourselves
Lords of Manors and Lords of the Land, that, in regard the King of
Righteousness, our Maker, hath enlightened our hearts so far as to
see that the Earth was not made purposely for you to be Lords of
it, and we to be your Slaves, Servants and Beggars, but it was made
to be a common livelihood to all.... And further, in regard the
King of Righteousness hath made us sensible of our burthens, and
the cries and groanings of our hearts are come before Him, we take
it as a testimony of love from Him, that our hearts begin to be
freed from slavish fear of men such as you are, and that we find
Resolutions in us, grounded upon the Inward Law of Love one towards
another, to dig and plough up the Commons and Waste Land through
England; and that our conversations shall be so unblamable that
your Laws shall not reach to oppress us any longer, unless you by
your Laws will shed the innocent blood that runs in our veins."

Subsequently they protest against the Lords of Manors controlling the
use and taking the profit of the Commons, hindering the people from
supplying their wants as regards "Woods, Heath, Turf or Turfeys in
places about the Commons," and continue defiantly:

"Therefore we are resolved to be cheated no longer, nor to be held
under the slavish fear of you no longer, seeing the Earth was made
for us as well as for you. And if the Common Land belong to us who
are the poor oppressed, surely the woods that grow upon the Commons
belong to us likewise. Therefore we are resolved to try the
uttermost in the light of Reason to know whether we shall be
Free-men or Slaves. If we lie still and let you steal away our
birthrights, we perish; and if we petition, we perish also, though
we have paid taxes, given free-quarter, and have ventured our lives
to preserve the Nation's freedom as much as you, and therefore, by
the Law of Contract with you, freedom in the land is our portion
as well as yours, equal with you. And if we strive for Freedom, and
your murdering, governing Laws destroy us, we can but perish."

"Therefore we require and we resolve to take both Common Land and
Common Woods to be a livelihood for us, and look upon you as equal
with us, not above us, knowing very well that England, the Land of
our Nativity, is to be a Common Treasury of Livelihood to all,
without respect of persons.

"So then, we declare unto you that do intend to cut our Common
Woods and Trees, that you shall not do it, unless it be for a stock
for us, and we to know of it by a public declaration abroad, that
the poor oppressed, who live thereabouts, may take it and employ it
for their public use: Therefore take notice, we have demanded it in
the name of the Commons of England, and of all the Nations of the
world, it being the righteous freedom of the Creation."

They then warn all wood-buyers against purchasing from those who would
dispose of such wood for their own private advantage, again emphasising
their contention that they would take it only to provide a common stock
for all. Then they appeal to the Great Council of England for protection
and encouragement, urging that august body to fulfil the promises so
freely made, at the outbreak of the Civil War, to induce them and others
to espouse the Parliament's cause. Apparently they did not expect much
from them, as their appeal commences in the following somewhat
hesitating manner:

"And we hope we may not doubt (at least we expect) that they that
are called the Great Council and Powers of England, who so often
have declared themselves by promises and by covenants, and have
confirmed them by multitude of fasting days, and devout
protestations to make England a free people, upon condition they
would pay moneys and adventure their lives against the successor of
the Norman Conqueror, under whose oppressing power England was
enslaved. And we look upon that freedom promised to be the
inheritance of all, without respect of persons. And this cannot be
unless the Land of England be freely set at liberty from
proprietors and becomes a Common Treasury to all her children, as
every portion of the Land of Canaan was the common livelihood of
such and such a Tribe, and of every member of that Tribe, without
exception, neither hedging in any, nor hedging out.

"We say we hope we need not doubt of their sincerity to us herein,
and that they will not gainsay our determinate course. Howsoever,
their actions will prove to the view of all either their sincerity
or their hypocrisy. We know what we speak is our privilege and that
our cause is righteous; and if they doubt of it, let them but send
a child for us to come before them, and we will make it manifest
some ways."

They then advance the grounds for their demands in the following
incisive words:

"_First_, By the National Covenant, which yet stands in force to
bind Parliament and People to be faithful and sincere before the
Lord God Almighty, wherein every one in his several place hath
covenanted to preserve and seek the liberty each of other without
respect of persons.

"_Secondly_, By the late victory over King Charles we do claim this
our privilege to be quietly given us out of the hands of Tyrant
Government, as our bargain and contract with them. For the
Parliament promised if we would pay taxes, and give free-quarter,
and adventure our lives against Charles and his party, whom they
called the common enemy, they would make us a free people.[93:1]
These three being all done by us, as well as by themselves, we
claim this our bargain by the Law of Contract from them, to be a
free people with them, they being chosen by us, but for a peculiar
work, and for an appointed time, from among us, not to be our
oppressing Lords, but servants to succour us. But these two are our
weakest proofs. And yet by them, in the light of Reason and Equity
that dwells in men's hearts, we shall with ease cast down all those
former enslaving, Norman, reiterated Laws, in every King's reign
since the Conquest, which are as thorns in our eyes and pricks in
our sides, and which are called the Ancient Government of England.

"_Thirdly_, We shall prove we have a free right to the land of
England, being born therein, as well as elder brothers, and that it
is our right equal with them and they with us, to have a
comfortable livelihood in the Earth, without owning any of our own
kind to be either Lords or Land-Lords over us. And this we shall
prove by plain text of Scripture, without exposition upon them,
which the Scholars and Great Ones generally say is their rule to
walk by.

"_Fourthly_, We shall prove it by the Righteous Law of our
Creation, that mankind in all its branches is the Lord of the
Earth, and ought not to be in subjection to any of his own kind
without him, but to live in the light of the Law of Righteousness
and Peace established in his heart."

The pamphlet concludes as follows:

"Thus in love we have declared the purpose of our hearts plainly,
without flattery, expecting love and the same sincerity from you,
without grumbling or quarrelling, being Creatures of your own image
and mould, intending no other matter herein, but to observe the Law
of Righteous Action, endeavouring to shut out of the Creation the
accursed thing called Particular Propriety, which is the cause of
all wars, bloodshed, theft, and enslaving Laws, that hold the
people under misery.

"Signed for and in the behalf of all the poor oppressed people of
England and the whole world--

"GERARD WINSTANLEY, }
JOHN COULTON, }
JOHN PALMER, }
THOMAS STAR, }
SAMUEL WEBB, } and others, forty-six in all.
JOHN HAYMAN, }
THOMAS EDCER, }
WILLIAM HOGRILL," }

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