The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth

ker to a stronger hand. The only way to cast him out is for the people to leave him to himself, to forsake fighting and all oppression, a

to administer the public affairs of England, had scarcely settled down to their work when they received the followin

enry Sanders of W

ay, being Tuesday, they fired the heath, and burned at least forty rood of heath, which is a very great prejudice to the town. On Friday last they came again, between twenty and thirty, and wrought all day at digging. They did then intend to have two or three ploughs at work, but they had not furnished themselves with seed-corn, which they did on Saturday at Kingston. They invite all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, an

y San

pril

to forward it the same day to Lord Fairfax, the Lord General of

f State to Lor

re by them avowed may seem very ridiculous, yet that conflux of people may be a beginning whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow, to the disturbance of the peace and quiet of the Commonwealth. We therefore recommend it to your Lordship's care that some force of horse

e and by order of

authority o

adshaw,

se, 16th A

Right H

Fairfax, L

llowing soldier-like letter from the active republican officer to whom he had entruste

Gladman to Lor

tly Ab

aw there was no need to march any further. I cannot hear that there have been above twenty of them together since they first undertook the business. Mr. Winstanlie and Mr. Everard have engaged both to be with you this day: I believe you will be glad to be rid of them again, especially Everard, who is no other than a mad man. Sir, I intend to go w

Gla

, April 1

Whitehall, and under date April 20th the following account of their interview appe

at St. George's Hill in Surrey, came to the General an

ost by the coming in of William the Conqueror, and that ever since the people of God had

bring his people out of this slavery, and restore them to th

vision, which bad him arise and dig and plo

ren land fruitful, so now what they did was to restore the ancient community of enjoying the fruits of the Eart

meddle with what was common and untilled, and to make it fruitful for the use of man. That the time will sudd

d clothes, which is all that is necessary to the life of man; and that for mon

sed opportunity be offered, which they conceive to be at hand. And that as their forefathers lived in

f, they said, 'Because he was but their fellow-creature.' Being asked the meaning of that place, 'Give h

se it was the beginning of the appearance of this opinion; and tha

Saxon Lords, William the Conqueror introduced but few innovations into the laws and institutions of the country, the very opposite was the accepted opinion in the days of Winstanley and his associates.38:1 It may also be well to mention here that, though Everard's name appears, and first in order, amongst those who signed the pamphlet, The True

referred in most cordial terms; for on his way from Guildford to London the following month, he visited them at their work, of whic

f the Army to the Diggers at St. George's Hill in Surrey

tanley returned sober answers, though they gave little satisfaction (if any at all) in regard of the strangeness of their action. It was urged that the Commons were as justly due to the Lords as any other lands. They answered that these were Crown Lands where they digged, and the King who possessed them by the Norman Conquest being dead, they were returned again to the Common People of Englan

hey carry themselves civilly and fairly in the country, and have the report of sober, honest men. Some barley is already come up, and other fruits formerly; but was pulled up by some of the envious inhabitants there

master-mind, the inspirer and director, of the Digger Movement. As Gardiner well says, "It is not only by the immediate accomplishment of its aim that the value of honest endeavour is to be tested." And the reader's interest in our work may be quickened if we so far forestall the pages that are to follow as to indicate that not only were Winstanley's earlier theological writings the source whence the early Quakers, or the Children of Light, as they at first called themselves, drew many of their most characteristic tenets and doctrines, but that the fundamental principles which i

er of the Council of State, in his Memorial of English Affairs (p. 396), under

a week last Sunday,

cit. vol.

t. vol. ii.

P.

, in the behalf of our English Nation, against the grand yet neglected grievance Normanism." Another, "Englands Proper and Only Way to an Establishment in Honor, Freedom, Peace and Happiness: Or the Norman Yoke once more uncased, and the Necessity, Justice, and Present Seasonableness of breaking it in pieces demonstrated, i

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