John Lilburne, the brother
of Robert
Lilburne,
was born in Thickley Puncherdon, in 1615. His father, Richard Lilburne,
owned land in Durham.
His mother, Margaret Lilburne, was the daughter of Thomas Hixon, the
yeoman of the wardrobe to Elizabeth I.
Lilburne's mother died
soon after he was born. He was educated at schools in Newcastle and
Auckland. At the age of fifteen he sent by his father to London
where he become an apprentice in the cloth trade.
In 1637 Lilburne met John
Bastwick, a Puritan
preacher who had just had
his ears cut off for writing a pamphlet attacking the religious views
of the William Laud, the Archbishop
of Canterbury. Lilburne was shocked that someone could be so severely
punished for expressing
their religious beliefs. Lilburne
offered to help Bastwick in his struggle with the Anglican
Church. Eventually it was agreed that Lilburne should go to Holland
to organise the printing of a book that Bastwick had written.
In December 1637 Lilburne
was arrested and charged with printing and circulating unlicensed
books. On 13th February, 1638, he was found guilty and sentenced to
be fined £500, whipped, pilloried and imprisoned. The following
month he was whipped from Fleet
Prison to Palace
Yard. When he was placed in the pillory he tried to make a speech
praising John Bastwick and was gagged.
While in prison Lilburne
wrote about his punishments, The Work of
the Beast (1638) and an attack on the Anglican
Church, Come Out of Her, My People
(1639).
In November 1640, Charles
I was forced
to recall Parliament for the first time in eleven years. Oliver
Cromwell, a Puritan
member of the House of Commons, made a
speech about Lilburne's case. After a debate on the issue. Parliament
voted to release him from prison.
When the Civil
War broke out in 1642, Lilburne immediately joined the Parliamentary
army. Lilburne fought at Edgehill but
was captured at Brentford on 12th November, 1642. Charged with "bearing
arms against the king" he was put on trial at Oxford.
Lilburne was in danger of losing his life until Parliament announced
on 17th December, 1642, that it would carry out immediate reprisals
if he was executed.
In 1643 Lilburne was released
during an exchange of prisoners. He now joined the army led by the
Edward
Montagu
and took part in the siege
of Lincoln. He was a good soldier and in May 1644 was promoted to
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. However, in April 1645 he left the
army after being told he could not join the New
Model Army without taking the covenant.
On 7th January, 1645, Lilburne
wrote a letter to William Prynne complaining
about the intolerance of the Presbyterians
and arguing for freedom of speech for the Independents.
Prynne was furious with Lilburne for making this comments and he was
reported to the House of Commons. As a result, he was brought before
the Committee of Examinations on 17th May, 1645, and warned about
his future behaviour.
Lilburne was once again
called to appear before the Committee of Examinations on 18th June,
1645. For the second time he was let off with a caution. William
Prynne was unhappy with this verdict and arranged for the publication
of two pamphlets about Lilburne,
A Fresh Discovery of Prodigious Wandering
Stars and Firebrands and The Liar
Confounded. Lilburne replied with Innocency
and Truth Justified.
In July 1645 Lilburne's
old friend, John Bastwick, reported
Lilburne to the House of Commons, claiming
he had made critical comments about the Speaker, William
Lenthall. Lilburne was arrested and sent to Newgate
Prison. While
in captivity wrote a pamphlet where he repeated the charges against
Lenthall and other members of Parliament. Lilburne was released without
charge on 14th October, 1645.
John
Bradshaw now brought Lilburne's case before the Star Chamber.
He pointed out that Lilburne was still waiting for most of the pay
he should have received while serving in the Parliamentary army. Lilburne
was awarded £2,000 in compensation for his sufferings. However,
Parliament refused to pay this money and Lilburne was once again arrested.
Brought before the House of Lords Lilburne
was sentenced to seven years and fined £4,000.
While in prison Lilburne
wrote several pamphlets. This included Anatomy
of the Lords' Tyranny (1646), Regal
Tyranny Discovered (1647), The
Oppressed Man's Opinions Declared (1647) and London's
Liberty in Chains Discovered (1648). He also wrote A
Remonstrance of Many Thousands Citizens with his friend
Richard Overton.
On 1st August, 1648, the
House of Commons voted for Lilburne's release.
The next day the House of Lords agreed and
also remitted the fine imposed two years earlier.
On his release Lilburne
became involved in writing and distributing pamphlets on soldiers'
rights. He pointed out that even though soldiers were fighting for
Parliament, very few of them were allowed to vote for it. Lilburne
argued that all adult males should have the vote and that these elections
should take place every year. Lilburne, who believed that people were
corrupted by power, argued that no members of the House
of Commons should be allowed to serve for more than one year at
a time.
Lilburne and his friends,
including John Wildman, Richard
Overton and William Walwyn, formed
a new political party called the Levellers.
The Levellers' political programme included: voting rights for all
adult males, annual elections, complete religious freedom,
an end to the censorship
of books and newspapers, the abolition of the monarchy and the House
of Lords, trial by jury, an end to taxation of people earning
less than £30 a year and a maximum interest rate of 6%.
The Levellers started
publishing their own newspaper, The Moderate.
They also organised meetings where they persuaded people to sign a
Petition supporting their policies.
His wife, Elizabeth Lilburne, was also active in this campaign.
When
these reforms were opposed by officers in the New
Model Army, the
Levellers called
for the soldiers to revolt. In March 1649, Lilburne,
John Wildman, Richard
Overton and William Walwyn were arrested
and charged with advocating communism. After being brought
before the Council of State they were sent to the Tower
of London.
Lilburne was tried first
and after a jury refused to convict him Lilburne and the other Levellers
were released on 8th November. Lilburne was granted £3,000 in
compensation for his sufferings and was granted estates in Durham.
Oliver
Cromwell agreed with some of the Leveller's policies, including
the abolition of the monarchy and the House of
Lords. However, he refused to increase the number of people who
could vote in elections. Lilburne
now began writing pamphlets attacking Cromwell's government. Cromwell
responded by having Lilburne arrested and imprisoned in the Tower
of London. Over 10,000 people signed a petition calling for Lilburne's
release but Cromwell refused to let him go.
Lilburne was eventually
charged with treason. It was claimed that the pamphlets that he had
written had encouraged people to rebel against Cromwell's government.
However, the jury at Lilburne's trial found him not guilty. As soon
as he was released Lilburne returned to writing pamphlets. He attacked
Cromwell's suppression of Roman Catholics
in Ireland, Parliament's persecution of
Royalists in England and the decision to execute Charles
I.
Once again Lilburne was
arrested. This time Oliver Cromwell
banished him from England. For four months Lilburne lived in Holland,
but in June 1653 he was caught trying to get back into England. Once
again Lilburne was
imprisoned and charged with treason. This result was also the same;
the jury found him not guilty. However, this time Cromwell was unwilling
to release him.
On 16th March, 1654, Lilburne
was transferred to Elizabeth Castle, Guernsey. Colonel Robert Gibbon,
the governor of the island, later complained that Lilburne gave him
more trouble than "ten cavaliers". In October, 1655, he
was moved to Dover Castle. While he was in prison Lilburne continued
writing pamphlets including one that explained why he had joined the
Quakers.
In 1656 Oliver
Cromwell agreed to release Lilburne. John Lilburne's years of
struggle with the government had worn him out and on 29th August,
1657, at the age of 43, he died at his home at Eltham.
This picture of John Lilburne
appeared on the
front-cover of a Leveller pamphlet published in 1646.
(1)
John Lilburne, Leveller pamphlet (March, 1647)
No man should be punished
or persecuted... for preaching or publishing his opinion on religion.
(2)
John Lilburne, The Free Man's Freedom Vindicated (1647)
All and every particular
and individual man and woman, that ever
breathed in the world, are by nature all equal and alike in their
power, dignity, authority and majesty, none of them having (by
nature) any authority, dominion or magisterial power one over
or above another.
(3)
John Lilburne, Rash Oaths (May, 1647)
Every free man of England,
poor as well as rich, should have a vote in choosing those that are
to make the law.
(4)
Letter
sent by John Lilburne to
supporters of the Leveller movement in Kent (1648)
This is the method we have
used in London. We have appointed several men in every ward to form
a committee... they arrange for the Petition (list of policies supported
by the Levellers) to be read at meetings and to take subscriptions.
(5)
In
1649 John Lilburne wrote
a pamphlet attacking the execution of Charles
I.
I refused to be one of
his (Charles I) judges... they were no better than murders in taking
away the King's life even though he was guilty of the crimes he was
charged with... it is murder because it was done by a hand that had
no authority to do it.
(6)
John
Lilburne,
Richard Overton and
Thomas Prince, Englands New Chains Discovered (March, 1649)
If our hearts were not
over-charged with the sense of the present miseries and approaching
dangers of the Nation, your small regard to our late serious apprehensions,
would have kept us silent; but the misery, danger, and bondage threatened
is so great, imminent, and apparent that whilst we have breath, and
are not violently restrained, we cannot but
speak, and even cry aloud, until you hear us, or God be pleased otherwise
to relieve us.
Removing the King, the
taking away the House of Lords, the overawing the House, and reducing
it to that pass, that it is become but the Channel, through which
is conveyed all the Decrees and Determinations of a private Council
of some few Officers, the erecting of their Court of Justice, and
their Council of State, The Voting of the People of Supreme Power,
and this House the Supreme Authority: all these particulars, (though
many of them in order to good ends, have been desired by well-affected
people) are yet become, (as they have managed them) of sole conducement
to their ends and intents, either by removing such as stood in the
way between them and power, wealth or command of the Commonwealth;
or by actually possessing and investing them in the same.
They may talk of freedom,
but what freedom indeed is there so long as they stop the Press, which
is indeed and hath been so accounted in
all free Nations, the most essential part thereof, employing an Apostate
Judas for executioner therein who hath been twice burnt in the hand
a wretched fellow, that even the Bishops and Star Chamber would have
shamed to own. What freedom is there left, when honest and worthy
Soldiers are sentenced and enforced to ride the horse with their faces
reverst, and their swords broken over their heads for but petitioning
and presenting a letter in justification of their liberty therein?
If this be not a new way of breaking the spirits of the English, which
Strafford and Canterbury never dreamt of, we know no difference of
things.
(7)
Elizabeth Lilburne, A Petition of Women (5th May, 1649)
That since we are assured
of our creation in the image of God, and of an interest in Christ
equal unto men, as also of a proportional share in the freedoms of
this commonwealth, we cannot but wonder and grieve that we should
appear so despicable in your eyes as to be thought unworthy to petition
or represent our grievances to this honourable House. Have we not
an equal interest with the men of this nation in those liberties and
securities contained in the Petition of Right, and other the good
laws of the land? Are any of our lives, limbs, liberties, or goods
to be taken from us more than from men, but by due process of law
and conviction of twelve sworn men of the neighbourhood? And can you
imagine us to be so sottish or stupid as not to perceive, or not to
be sensible when daily those strong defences of our peace and welfare
are broken down and trod underfoot by force and arbitrary power?
Would you have us keep
at home in our houses, when men of such faithfulness and integrity
as the four prisoners, our friends in the Tower, are fetched out of
their beds and forced from their houses by soldiers, to the affrighting
and undoing of themselves, their wives, children, and families? Are
not our husbands, our selves, our daughters and families, by the same
rule as liable to the like unjust cruelties as they?
Nay, shall such valiant,
religious men as Mr. Robert Lockyer be liable to court martial, and
to be judged by his adversaries, and most inhumanly shot to death?
Shall the blood of war be shed in time of peace? Doth not the word
of God expressly condemn it? And are we Christians, and shall we sit
still and keep at home, while such men as have borne continual testimony
against the injustice of all times and unrighteousness of men, be
picked out and be delivered up to the slaughter? And yet must we show
no sense of their sufferings, no tenderness of affection, no bowels
of compassion, nor bear any testimony against so abominable cruelty
and injustice?
(8)
John
Lilburne,
Richard Overton and William
Walwyn, Preamble to the third draft
of The Agreement of the People (1st May, 1649)
We, the free People of
England, to whom God hath given hearts, means and opportunity to effect
the same, do with submission to his wisdom, in his name, and desiring
the equity thereof may be to his praise and glory; Agree to ascertain
our Government to abolish all arbitrary Power, and to set bounds and
limits - both to our Supreme, and all Subordinate Authority, and remove
all known Grievances. And accordingly do declare and publish to all
the world, that we are agreed as followeth.
That the Supreme Authority
of England and the Territories therewith incorporate, shall be and
reside henceforth in a Representative of the people consisting of
four hundred persons, but no more; in the choice of whom (according
to natural right) all men of the age of one and twenty years and upwards
(not being servants, or receiving alms, or having served the late
King in Arms or voluntary Contributions), shall have their votes.
(9)
Bulstrode
Whitelock, Memorials of English
Affairs (c. 1660)
The Women Petitioners again
attended at the door of the House for an answer to their Petition
concerning Lilburne and the rest. The House sent them this answer
by the Sergeant: 'That the Matter they petitioned about was of an
higher concernment than they understood, that the House gave an answer
to their husbands, and therefore desired them to go home, and look
after their own business, and meddle with their housewifery.
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