THE DIGGERS
"The way to cast out Kingly Power is not to cast it out by the
Sword; for this doth but set him in more power, and removes him
from a weaker 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, and to live in love one towards another. The Power of
Love is the True Saviour."--WINSTANLEY, _A New Year's Gift for the
Parliament and Army_.
The Council of State which, on February 13th, 1649, within a month of
the execution of the King, had been appointed to administer the public
affairs of England, had scarcely settled down to their work when they
received the following information of the mysterious doings of "a
disorderly and tumultuous sort of people" very near to their
doors:[34:1]
"INFORMATION OF HENRY SANDERS OF WALTON UPON THAMES.
"Informeth, that on Sunday was sennight last,[34:2] there was one
Everard, once of the army but was cashiered, who termeth himself a
prophet, one Stewer and Colten, and two more, all living at Cobham,
came to St. George's Hill in Surrey, and began to dig on that side
the hill next to Campe Close, and sowed the ground with parsnips,
carrots, and beans. On Monday following they were there again,
being increased in their number, and on the next day, 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, and clothes. They do threaten
to pull down and level all park pales, and lay open, and intend to
plant there very shortly. They give out they will be four or five
thousand within ten days, and threaten the neighbouring people
there, that they will make them all come up to the hills and work:
and forewarn them suffering their cattle to come near the
plantation; if they do, they will cut their legs off. It is feared
they have some design in hand.
"HENRY SANDERS.
"_16 April 1649._"
The Council of State were sufficiently impressed by this letter to
forward it the same day to Lord Fairfax, the Lord General of the armed
forces of the Commonwealth, with the following despatch:
"THE COUNCIL OF STATE TO LORD FAIRFAX.[35:1]
"MY LORD,--By the narrative enclosed your Lordship will be informed
of what relation hath been made to this Council of a disorderly and
tumultuous sort of people assembling themselves together not far
from Oatlands, at a place called St. George's Hill; and although
the pretence of their being there 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 may be sent to Cobham in Surrey and thereabouts, with orders
to disperse the people so met, and to prevent the like for the
future, that a malignant and disaffected party may not under colour
of such ridiculous people have any opportunity to rendezvous
themselves in order to do a greater mischief.
"Signed in the name and by order of the Council of State
appointed by authority of Parliament,
"JOHN BRADSHAW, _President_.
"DERBY HOUSE, _16th April 1649_.
"For the Right Honourable
THOMAS LORD FAIRFAX, Lord General."
Acting on his instructions, within a few days Lord Fairfax was in
possession of the following soldier-like letter from the active
republican officer to whom he had entrusted the business, and who
evidently was not so easily frightened as the Council of State:
"CAPTAIN JOHN GLADMAN TO LORD FAIRFAX.[36:1]
(Slightly Abridged.)
"SIR,--According to your order I marched towards St. Georges Hill
and sent four men before to bring certain intelligence to me; as
they went they met with Mr. Winstanlie and Mr. Everard (which are
the chief men that have persuaded these people to do what they have
done). And when I had enquired of them and of the officers that lie
at Kingston, I saw 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 with two or three men to St. Georges
Hill this day, and persuade these people to leave this employment
if I can, and if then I see no more danger than now I do I shall
march back again to London tomorrow.... Indeed the business is not
worth the writing nor yet taking notice of: I wonder the Council of
State should be so abused with informations....
"JO. GLADMAN.
"KINGSTON, _April 19th, 1649_."
As they had undertaken, Winstanley and Everard duly appeared before
Lord Fairfax at Whitehall, and under date April 20th the following
account of their interview appears in the ponderous pages of Bulstrode
Whitelocke's _Memorial of English Affairs_:[37:1]
"Everard and Winstanley, the chief of those that digged at St.
George's Hill in Surrey, came to the General and made a large
declaration to justify their proceedings.
"Everard said he was of the race of the Jews, that all the
liberties of the people were lost by the coming in of William the
Conqueror, and that ever since the people of God had lived under
tyranny and oppression worse than that of our forefathers under the
Egyptians.
"But now the time of deliverance was at hand, and God would bring
his people out of this slavery, and restore them to their freedom
in enjoying the fruits and benefits of the Earth.
"And that there had lately appeared to him a vision, which bad him
arise and dig and plough the earth, and receive the fruits thereof.
"That their intent is to restore the Creation to its former
condition. That as God had promised to make the barren land
fruitful, so now what they did was to restore the ancient community
of enjoying the fruits of the Earth, and to distribute the benefits
thereof to the poor and needy, and to feed the hungry and to clothe
the naked.
"That they intend not to meddle with any man's property nor to
break down any pales or enclosures, but only to meddle with what
was common and untilled, and to make it fruitful for the use of
man. That the time will suddenly be, when all men shall willingly
come in and give up their lands and estates, and submit to this
community.
"And for all those that will come in and work they should have
meat, drink, and clothes, which is all that is necessary to the
life of man; and that for money, there was not any need of it, nor
of clothes more than to cover nakedness.
"That they will not defend themselves by arms, but will submit unto
authority, and wait till the promised opportunity be offered, which
they conceive to be at hand. And that as their forefathers lived in
tents, so it would be suitable to their condition now to live in
the same: and more to the like effect.
"While they were before the General, they stood with their hats
on; and being demanded the reason thereof, they said, 'Because he
was but their fellow-creature.' Being asked the meaning of that
place, 'Give honour to whom honour is due'; they said that their
mouths should be stopped that gave them that offence."
Whitelocke continues, "I have set down this the more largely
because it was the beginning of the appearance of this opinion; and
that we might the better understand and avoid these weak
persuasions."
"The germ of Quakerism and much else is curiously visible here," is
Carlyle's shrewd comment on the above incident. But as to how far this
account of the views of the Diggers is correct, we shall leave to the
judgement of those who read the pages that are to follow. Though we may
now believe that, save that he placed Norman in the place of the 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 Levellers
Standard Advanced: or, The State of Community opened and presented to
the Sons of Men_, which bears date April 26th, 1649, and to which we
shall presently refer, it does not appear in any of the later
publications of the Diggers. Whether he died about this time or merely
dropped out of the movement, we have not been able to ascertain.
However this may be, Lord Fairfax appears to have been somewhat
impressed by his interview, to which the Diggers themselves always
referred in most cordial terms; for on his way from Guildford to London
the following month, he visited them at their work, of which visit we
take the following account from the pages of a contemporary and
evidently friendly news-sheet, dated May 31st, 1649:[39:1]
"The SPEECHES of Lord General FAIRFAX and the Officers of the Army
to the Diggers at St. George's Hill in Surrey, and the Diggers'
several answers and replies thereunto.
"As his Excellency the Lord General came from Gilford to London, he
went to view the Diggers at St. George's Hill in Surrey, with his
Officers and Attendants. They found about twelve of them hard at
work, and amongst them one Winstanley was the chief speaker.
Several questions were propounded by the Officers, and the Lord
General made a short speech by way of admonition to them, and this
Winstanley 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 England, who might improve them if they would take the pains;
that for those who would come dig with them, they should have the
benefit equal with them, and eat of their bread; but they would not
force any, applying to all the golden rule, to do to others as we
would be done unto. Some Officers wished they had no further plot
in what they did, and that no more was intended than what they did
pretend.
"As to the barrenness of the ground, which was objected as a
discouragement, the Diggers answered they would use their
endeavours, and leave the success to God, who had promised to make
the barren ground fruitful. They 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 thereabouts, who are
not so far convinced as to promise not to injure them for the
future. The ground will probably in a short time yield them some
fruit of their labour, how contemptible soever they do yet appear
to be."
Before following the further adventures of the Diggers, as revealed in
the numerous pamphlets they left us, from which alone they can now be
gathered, we deem it best to lay before our readers what we have been
able to ascertain of Gerrard Winstanley's previous life's history and
writings. Behind every movement that has ever influenced the thoughts of
mankind, there is always some master-mind, a Lautze, a Gautama, a Jesus
of Nazareth, a Wiclif, a John Wesley, a Darwin, a Tolstoy, or a Henry
George; and it is in the comparatively unknown Gerrard Winstanley that
we shall find the 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 inspired and animated his
political writings were in all respects identical with those that during
the past quarter of a century have been so honourably associated with
the name of Henry George. We are not here called upon to pronounce
judgement on these principles; but in passing we shall endeavour to
point out how far the demands and doctrines of the Land Reformers of the
Seventeenth Century, as revealed in Winstanley's writings, coincide with
those of their successors in the Twentieth Century. In all cases we
shall, as far as possible, let Gerrard Winstanley speak for himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[34:1] _Clarke Papers_, vol. ii. p. 209. Bulstrode Whitelocke, then
already a member of the Council of State, in his _Memorial of English
Affairs_ (p. 396), under date April 17th, 1649, has an entry referring
to and summarising this letter.
[34:2] That is to say, a week last Sunday, or last Sunday week.
[35:1] _Loc. cit._ vol. ii. p. 210.
[36:1] _Loc. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 211-212.
[37:1] P. 397.
[38:1] A glance at the titles of John Hare's well-known pamphlets, the
work of a learned, prosaic, diffuse, moderate, and loyal writer,
suffices to show how widespread this jealousy and impatience of what he
terms Normanism was. One runs as follows:--"_St. Edwards Ghost or Anti
Normanism_: Being a pathetical Complaint and Motion, in the behalf of
our English Nation, against the grand yet neglected grievance
Normanism." Another, {3}"_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, in Eight most
plain and true Propositions, with their proofs." The pamphlets are
interesting only as showing the prevalence of the idea that the
dishonour of the English Nation, and the slavery and impoverishment of
the masses of the English people, were due to Norman Laws and
institutions introduced by William the Conqueror.
[39:1] British Museum, Press Mark, E. 530.