English Dissenters: Diggers

Diggers

Summary

The Digger movement had its antecedents in earlier times of hunger and unrest. Even the term Diggers seems to have some historical anecedents in English history.

The economic conditions of 1648-50 were especially harsh for the poor. Low crop production and rising food cost impacted eveyone. Common folk were establishing agrarian communities all across England to cultivate the public lands for food. The poor were going hungry, and the land was there.

There may be evidence to suggest that some early Digger communities may have received assistance from some in the Leveller community. There is little evidence to suggest any centralized organized group controlling the general Digger movement. There were probably some very informal relations between the various communities during 1648-50.

There is good evidence to support the establishment of Digger communities at: Dunstable (Bedfordshire), Iver (Buckinhhamshire), Barnet (Hamptonshire), Cox Hill (Kent?), Bosworth (Leicestershire), Entfield (Middlesex), Wellingborough (Northhamptonshire). And there is good reason to also suspects communities in Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Communities at Buckinghamshire were known from Dec. 1648 with the publication of the tract: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. In March 1649 there was published: More Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. Other Digger communities would soon develop throughout England during the period from 1648-50. In 1650, there seems to have been a general decline in the movement.

The winter of 1649/50 was one of the worst on record and carried well into early Spring of 1650. Unemployment was very high, food was scarce and expensive, some areas bordered on possible riots. People were sick and dying throughout the country. Parliament was trying to cop with the conditions as best it could. It was these conditions during 1648-50 provided the catalyst for the Digger movement.

St George's Hill (Surrey)

Probably the most famous of the various Digger communities in England were the Surrey Diggers around St George's Hill (Surrey), and later at Cobham Heath (Surrey) only a short distance away. Digging started at St George's Hill on 1 April 1649 by a few local men at under a local, The Reverend Mr. William Everard (1575?-1650?).

William Everard was a graduate of Clare College (Cambridge), an ordained minister, a writer, a New Model Army radical preacher, and now a local resident at Walton-on-Thames. Everard and a few other locals started to cultivate the public lands about St George's Hill, Surrey. The community quickly increased. The poor were hungry and destitute.

Gerrard Winstanley (1609?-1660?)

A nearby neighbor and friend of Everard was Gerrard Winstanley. Winstanley had come from a prosperous old Lancaster family. He had been a merchant tailor in London, who like many others had lost everything during the Civil War. Winstanley was now reduced to herding livestock while living nearby with his wife's relatives at Cobham.

By 1648, Winstanley had begun to write religious and social pamphlets. He was intelligent and well read, but no formal university education. Winstanley had a unique philosophical train of mind which showed in his writings.

With the publication of his tract: The New Law of Righteousness (1649), Winstanley outlined his vision of a different social order. Winstanley would credits his inspiration from a message received in a trance, "Work together, Eat bread together".

Winstanley would advocated a new democratic society of the "common man" as opposed to the current society based on privilege and wealth. Many of the political, economic and social reforms advocated would dramatically impact the social order. Winstanley was concerned by the plight of the people at the lower rungs of English Society, the overlooked or forgotten man. The poor, the sick, the hungry, and the destitute who often did not scrape by or were left to die.

The Digger movement at St George's Hill provided an ideal venue for testing Winstanleys' new social experiment. Winstanley rejected the concept of private ownership of all land, and called for a peaceful return of all public lands to the People. Some have even characterized the Surrey Diggers' as a primitive Millennium movement. Later generations have called the social experiment an early form of communism.

Local landowners and farmers were soon asserting their own claims for these same public lands for grazing and fodder. On 20 March 1649, the basic case for the Digger is included in the manifesto: The True Leveller Standard Advanced: or, The State of Community opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men(1649). Everard and fifteen other members including Winstanley were listed on the title page. Winstanley is generally credited as the principal author. On the same day Everard and Winstanley appeared before the General, Lord Fairfax for nine days of questioning.

During the month of April 1649 the community was attacked and buildings were burned. By 16 April local officials were receiving complaints about the Diggers in Surrey. On 19 April, a detachment of soldiers under the command of a Captain John Gladman visited the Surrey Diggers without incident. In his report, Gladman characterized Everard as "no better than a mad man".

Everard and Winstanley were instructed again to meet with General, Lord Fairfax at Whitehall (London) on the morrow. By 23 April 1649 there were some fifty individuals active in tilling the land, and establishing a community. Winstanley had become first among equals at St George's Hill.

Sometime during early May 1649, William Everard seems to have taken his leave of St George's Hill community. On 10 May 1649, large segments of the New Model Army had resembled at Burford, Oxfordshire demanding reparations. Forces under the military command of General, Lord Fairfax, and Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell crushed the rebels. A major uprising of the New Model Army was silenced. Everard may have been involved in the uprising, he seems to have vanished, or he may have escaped the fate of his comrades.

During the period from May 22-29, the Diggers, their crops and buildings suffered additional attacks by locals, thugs, and malicious soldiers. On 26 May 1649, the General, Lord Fairfax came and visited the community at St George's Hill. He basically described the situation as a local civil dispute.

At the beginning of June, Winstanley published: A Declaration from the Poor Oppressed People of England (1649). Winstanley asserted the right to fell trees on the common lands for their own benefit, and deny access to others. This was is direct opposition to the ancient practice of commonage, where the Commons were available to all.

On June 11th, a group of individuals disguised as women attacked the Digger community and beat four of its members. They were presumed to have hired thugs of the local land owners. The incident is related in A Declaration of the Bloudie and Unchristian Acting of William Star and John Taylor (1649). Winstanley complains of this event to General, Lord Fairfax in A Letter to Lord Fairfax (1649).

About the 23rd of June, members of the Surrey Diggers community were again arrested and charged with trespassing. Winstanley expressed his ire in the work of July 11th: An Appeal to the House of Commons, desiring their answer; whether the Common-People shall have the quiet enjoyment of the Commons and Waste Lands; Or whether they shall be under the will of Lords of Manors still (1649), an appeal against the undue influence of the local gentry and other wealth land owners.

Surrey Diggers were usually arrest and fined by the local authorities for trespassing and would than have them removed from the property in question. The Diggers were grudgingly tolerated at the local level until the wealthy land owners became involved. When the local gentry brought their political and economic pressure to bear on the local authorities, the Diggers community St George's Hill, Surrey started to wane. Local clergy even preached against them in their own local parishes.

During July-August 1649, the Surrey Diggers adopted a new tactic, they simply packed up and moved their community a mile or so to Cobham Heath on the commons of Cobham Manor. They numbered about fifty individuals. They started where they had left off on St George's Hill: tilling, planting and building shelter for their community.

On August 26th, Winstanley published: A Watch-word to the City of London and the Armie (1649). Winstanley makes a basic plea of support to the City of London that Freedom is won not given and extols the populace to take action in their own behalf.

In October 1649, the local authorities again tried to have the Diggers removed from the Cobham land. In November 1649, soldiers were dispatched to assist the local Justices of Peace.

In December 1649, Winstanley again visits General, Lord Fairfax in Whitehall (London). Winstanley published another work on 1 Jan. 1650: New-Yeers Gift for the Parliament and Armie (1649) basically as an overview of the progress and setbacks of the Surrey Diggers during 1649.

The winter of 1649-50 was very harsh, but their crops were doing well on Cobham Heath. Their community was active with some eleven acres under cultivation with some six or seven shelters. Local pressure continued into the early Spring 1650, and the remaining community became desperate to maintain itself. There was some encouraging news that other Digger communities had developed and were doing well in other parts of England. A letter was sent out by the Surrey Diggers requesting financial assistance from among the other Digger communities.

Legal actions were still being directed against the Diggers as at St George's Hill. Winstanley published his next work: An appeale to all Englishmen, to judge between bondage and freedom, sent from those that began to digge uppon George Hill in Surrey, , but now are carrying on that publick work upon the the little heath, in the parish of Cobham, near unto George Hill, ... (1650) for needed assistance.

The State government was becoming concerned with the radical social views of Winstanley, and his writings. In response to the continuing protests from the local land owners and authorities, a small military detachment was dispatched to Cobham Heath in March 1650.

With pending legal actions against the Surrey Diggers, and their diminishing financial resources, the Surrey Diggers quietly disbanded their community. By July of 1650, the Surrey Diggers were just a memory at Cobham Heath.

As a social-economic movement, the Surrey Diggers struck at the heart of the privileged society and its fear of the common people. Without any political or economic support from the community at large for their cause, the Surrey Diggers quickly vanished.

The larger Digger movement did demonstrate a basic need of the people to act together to fend for themselves in times of hardships. It also showed the grit of the English character.

The Leveller leadership actually disavowed any support for or relationship with the Surrey Diggers in 1650. The Surrey Diggers would become too radical for even the Leveller Movement to associate itself .

Of Winstanley's personal life there are missing blanks before St George's Hill, and after Cobham Heath. The time period from 1643-1648 is uncertain. There are some suggestion that Winstanley may have even acted as an itinerant preacher with Baptist leanings.

After 1650 there is much speculation on his movements. Some have suggest that he may have continued to reside in the Cobham area. Some have suggested that Winstanley may have involved himself with other Digger communities after Cobham Heath. Some have suggested that Winstanley may have improved his financial situation after the Restoration (1660).

Winstanley's radical vision of a new society died a quite death in Surrey, but his writings and their message did not. Although only a small movement unto themselves in a much larger context of the Interregnum, the Surrey Diggers were sometimes referred to as the "True Levellers" for their broader social democratic vision of a new society of the common man.

As with the Levellers, Winstanley and the Surrey Diggers struck a blow at the halls of wealth and power of 16th century English society. Their efforts and their philosophy were not wasted on later generations seeking the same spirit of liberty and freedom in a more democratic social structure.

A SELECT DIGGERS BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

[Anon.] A Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, or A Discovery of the Main ground, original Causw of all Slavery in the world but chiefly in England: presented by way of a Declaration of many of the wel-affected in that County, to all their poore oppressed Country men of England, &c. (1648)

[Anon.] A Declaration of the wel-affected in the County of Buckinghamshire. (1649) [Wing D776]

[Anon.] More Light Shining in in Buckingham-shire (1649)

[Anon.] Speeches of Lord General Fairfax and the Officers of the Armie to the Diggers at St. Georges Hill in Surrey and the Diggers several Answers and Replies thereunto (1649)

[Anon.] The declaration and standard of the levellers of England, delivered in a speech to His Excellency the Lord Gen. Fairfax, on Friday last at White-Hall, by Mr. William Everard, a late member of the Army, and his prophesie in reference thereunto ... (1650)

[Anon.] A declaration of the bloudie and unchristian acting of William Star and John Taylor of Walton, vvith divers men in womens apparell, in opposition to those that dig upon George-hill in Surrey (1649) [Thomason Tracts; 86:E.561(6)] [Wing (2nd ed.) D644] [ESTCR206011]

[Anon.] No Age like unto the Age (1649)

Coster, Robert. The Diggers mirth, or, certain verses composed and fitted to tunes, for the delight and recreation of all those that dig, or own that work, in the Commonwealth of England. (1650) [Thomason Tracts; 179:E.1365(3)] [Wing (2nd ed.) C6366A] [ESTCR209239]

Everard, William, et al. The True Leveller Standard Advanced, or the State of Community opened and presented to the Sons of Man. By William Everard, Iohn Palmer, Iohn South, Iohn Courton. William Taylor, Christopher Clifford, Iohn Barker,. Ferrard Winstanley, Richard Goodgroome, Thomas Starre, William Hoggrill, Robert Sawyer, Thomas Eder, Henry Bickerstaffe, Ihon Tayler, &c. Beginning to plante and manure the waster land upon George-Hill, in the parish of Walton, in the county of Surrey. [1649] [Thomason Tracts; 85:E.552(5)] [Wing (2nd ed.) T2716] [ESTCR205713]

[Fairfax, Lord] The Speeches of the Lord Generall Fairfax, and the Officers of the Armie to the Diggers (1649)

Heard, Jacob, fl. 1650, et al. A Letter Taken at Wellingborough (1650)

Smith, Richard, fl. 1650. A Declaration of the Grounds and Reasons why we the Poor Inhabitants of the Town of VVellingborrow, in the County of Northampton, have begun and give consent to dig up, manure and sow corn upon the Common, and waste ground called Bareshanke, ... (1650) [Thomason Tracts; E.669.f.15(21)] [Wing (2nd ed.) D685] [ESTCR211361]

Winstanley, Gerrard (1609?-1660?). An Appeal to the House of Commons, desiring their ansvver vvhether the common- people shall have the quite enjoyment of the commons and waste land; ... (1649) [Wing W3040] [ESTCR204110]

______. The breaking of the day of God. Wherein , four things are manifested... (1649) [Wing W3042]

______. A Declaration from the poor oppressed people of England, ...(1649) [Wing D595]

______. A VVatch-vvord to the City of London, and the Armie wherein you may see that Englands freedome, which should be the result of all our victories, is sinking deeper under the Norman power, ... (1649) [Thomason Tracts; 88:E.573(1)] [Wing (2nd ed.) W3057] [ESTCR206174]

______. A letter to the Lord Fairfax, and his Councell of VVar, with divers questions to the lawyers, and ministers proving it an undeniable equity, that the common people ought to dig, plow, plant, and dwell upon the commons, without hiring them, or paying rent to any. ... (1649) [ThomasonTRacts; 86:E.560(10] [Wing W3046] [ESTCR204419]

[_____]. A Declaration to the powers of England, ... (1649) [ Attributed?]

______. The Diggers song (1649)

______.The New Law of Righteousness budding forth, in restoring the whole creation from the bondage of the curse. Or a glimpse of the new heaven, and new earth, wherein dwels righteouness. ... (1649) [EEb, 1641-1700; 2068:28] [Wing (2nd ed.) W3049] [ESTCR219016]

______. An appeale to all Englishmen, to judge between bondage and freedom, sent from those that began to digge uppon George Hill in Surrey, , but now are carrying on that publick work upon the the little heath, in the parish of Cobham, near unto George Hill, ... (1650) [Wing (2nd ed.) W3039] [ESTCR211372]

______. [Another ed.] (1650) [Thomason Tracts; 246:669.f.15(32)] [ESTCR211368]

______. A new-yeers gift for the Parliament and Armie shewing what the kingly power is, and that the cause of those that are called Diggers is the life and marrow of that cause the Parliament hath declared for, and the Army fought for, ... (1650) [Thomason Tracts: 90; E.587(6)] [Wing (2nd ed.) W3050] [ESTCR206278]

______. Fire in the bush. The spirit burning, not consuming, but purging mankinde. ...(1650) [EEb, !641-1700; 804:17]][Thomason Tracts; 179:E.1365(1); 255:C.124hl(1)][Wing W3043] [ESTCR12363]

______. A Humble request, to the ministers of both universities, and to all lawyers in every Inns-a-Court (1650)

______. The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652)

______. Izbrannye pamflety [Selections] (Predshestvenniki nauchnogo sotsializma) (1950)

______. Gleichheit im Reiche der Freiheit: socialphilosophische Pamphlete und Traktate (Reclams Universal-Biliothek, 997) (1983)

______. The Works of Gerrard Winstanley, Sabine, G. H. (ed.) (1941)

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______. "Economic and Social Thought of Gerrard Winstanley", Journal of Modern History, 18 (1946)

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______. "Gerrard Winstanley and the Restoration of True Maistracy", Past and Present, 70 (1976)

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______. [Another ed.] (1995)

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