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Gerrard Winstanley and the Digger movement in Walton and Cobham*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

John Gurney
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Abstract

There has been disagreement among historians about the nature of the local response to the Diggers in Surrey, and about the relative importance of popular hostility and gentry-led opposition in the defeat of the Digger movement. It is argued here that a distinction must be made between the Diggers' reception in Walton and their treatment in Cobham: popular opposition was much in evidence in Walton, where the Diggers were treated as outsiders, but the response of Cobham's inhabitants was more ambivalent: some of Winstanley's most active fellow Diggers were Cobham inhabitants, and in this parish it was the local gentry who took the lead in the campaign against them. It is argued that the existence of a degree of local support for Winstanley was in part a reflection of Cobham's long tradition of landlord/tenant conflict, of the absence of a settled minister during the 1640s, and of the hardships experienced in the area in the aftermath of civil war.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 775 - 802
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

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15 P.R.O., ASSI 35/89/5 (Assizes, home circuit, indictments and other documents: Kingston, Sep. 1648).

16 P.R.O., Prob. 11/118, fo. 264 (will of Richard Taylor of Walton, carpenter, 1 Oct. 1611). The two John Taylors are described in the will as his second and third sons. The elder son was a carpenter and the younger a bricklayer: Prob. 11/272, fo. 346V (will of john Taylor of Walton, carpenter, 6 Feb. 1657); Guildhall Library, London (G.L.), 9051/6, fo. 143V (will of Richard Taylor, citizen and carpenter of London, 9 Sep. 1624); S.R.O., 2381/1/1 (Walton parish registers, 1639–53), p. 5; Kingston-upon-Thames register of apprentices 1563–1713, ed. Anne, Daly (Kingston: Surrey Record Society, 1974), p. 23.Google Scholar

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18 G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/13, fo. 308, for John Taylor the bricklayer, ‘now a souldier’; P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 356 (schedule of soldiers at Basing and owners of arms, Elmbridge hundred, June 1644), for William and Mark Taylor of Walton (the latter served on behalf of Thomas Knight, Samuel Taylor's father-in-law).

19 P.R.O. SP28/35, fo. 359 (list of parochial assessors appointed in Kingston and Elmbridge hundreds, May 1643).

20 SP28/291 (unfol.), certificate of Walton assessors 11 March 1650.

21 Sabine, , Works, pp. 259, 315–16.Google Scholar

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23 Ibid. p. 282; cf. p. 506.

24 Ibid. p. 273.

25 Ibid. pp. 296, 330.

26 Hill, Christopher, Religion and politics in seventeenth century England (Brighton, 1986), p. 206Google Scholar; Hill, , Winstanley: the law of freedom and other writings (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 39–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thomas, , ‘Another Digger broadside’, p. 64Google Scholar; Davis, J. C., ‘Gerrard Winstanley and the restoration of true magistracy’, Past and Present, LXX (1976), 79.Google Scholar

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28 Ibid. p. 296.

29 B.L. E 551(9): A modest narrative of intelligence (14–21 April 1649), p. 23; Sabine, , Works, pp. 266, 282–3.Google Scholar

30 Ibid. p. 282; cf. Hill, , Religion and politics, p. 219.Google Scholar

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32 Sabine, , Works, pp. 305, 326.Google Scholar

33 Ibid. pp. 285–6, for example.

34 Ibid. pp. 190–1, 194, 262; cf. Kenyon, Timothy, Utopian communism and political thought in early modern England (London, 1989), pp. 165–6, 176, 178Google Scholar; Davis, , ‘Restoration of true magistracy’, pp. 81–3Google Scholar; Hill, , Religion and politics, pp. 206, 220.Google Scholar

35 Clarke papers, II, 210.

36 P.R.O., E134/29,30 EliZ/M17 (Henry Dogwell et al. vs. Robert Benne), deposition of john Greentree of Walton; E134/32 EliZ/E14 (Robert Alexander et al. vs. Robert Benne), deposition of Thomas Downes of Cobham.

37 P.R.O., E134/29,30 Eliz/M17, depositions of Robert Dally of Walton and William Greentree of Hersham in Walton; E134/32 Eliz/Ei4, deposition of William Taylor of Walton. The right of all inhabitants to use the commons was already being questioned by at least one tenant in 1587: E134/29,30 Eliz/M17, deposition of john Hellys of Walton; cf. S.R.O., 442 (abstracts of court rolls, nine manors, 1606–16), fo. 42V, for later attempts to curb the influx of migrants and cottagers in Walton.

38 P.R.O., E134/32 Eliz/E14, depositions of john Frye of Apps in Walton and Robert Stackford of West Molesey.

39 P.R.O., E134/9 Jas I/H7 (Robert Bickerstaffe et al. vs. James Starr). By 1650, much of Lakefield had been turned over to arable: E317/41/44, p. 6.

40 P.R.O., LR2/197, fos. 6–9 (survey of Oatlands and Weybridge, 2 Jas I); LR2/197, fos. 192–5V survey of Walton Leigh, 2 Jas I); E317/40/38 (parliamentary survey of East Molesey, Feb. 1651); E134/29,30 Eliz/M17, depositions of William Greentree and Robert Dally.

41 P.R.O., E317/41/55, pp. 10, 12.

42 P.R.O., LR2/197, fo. 8v.

43 P.R.O., E134/29,30 Eliz/M17; E134/32 Eliz/E14.

44 Lilly, William, History of his life and times (ed. Ashmole, E., London, 1715), p. 94.Google Scholar

45 Vann, R. T., ‘Diggers and quakers – a further note’, Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, L (1962), 65.Google Scholar

46 Sabine, , Works, pp. 260–1Google Scholar; Clarke papers, II, 211. St George's Hill lay close to the busy London to Portsmouth road.

47 Sabine, , Works, p. 277Google Scholar. 29 of these 32 are not mentioned in other Digger related documents.

48 S.R.O., 2381/1/1, pp. 2, 3, 4.

49 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 27 Oct., 17 Nov. 1649.

50 P.R.O., SP18/16/140 (certificate of parliamentary surveyors, Surrey, 1651).

51 P.R.O., C231/6 (crown office docquet book 1642–60), p. 166. Oatlands palace lay in the parish of Weybridge, but much of the park lay in Walton, and bordered Walton Heath close to St George's Hill: LR2/197, fos. 6–9; LR2/297, fos. 105–12, 113–18 (parliamentary surveys of Oatlands house and park, June 1650).

52 P.R.O., C231/6, p. 141.

53 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/4 (home circuit: gen., Lent 1650), m. 40.

54 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 23 June 1649; Sabine, , Works, pp. 319, 327.Google Scholar

55 B.L. E 787(34): Fielder, John, The humble petition and appeal of John Fielder of Kingston miller, to the parliament of the common-wealth of England (London, 1651), p. 5Google Scholar; cf. Solt, L. F., ‘Winstanley, Lilburne, and the case of John Fielder’, Huntington Library Quarterly, XLV, 2 (1982)Google Scholar, for a detailed description of the case.

56 For Winstanley's career before 1649, see especially Alsop, , ‘Ethics in the marketplace’Google Scholar; Dalton, , ‘Experience of fraud’.Google Scholar

57 G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/13, fo. 95 (will of Robert Bickerstaffe of Walton, gentleman, 8 Sep. 1640); G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 42. (Robert Bickerstaffe is mistakenly referred to as Henry in the 18th century transcripts of the parish register.)

58 P.R.O., E317/41/44; LR2/197, fo. 193V; SC12/15/43 (Walton, Weybridge, Esher and Oatlands rental [22 Jas I]); C10/468/162 (John Povey vs. James and William Bickerstaffe, John and Margaret Platt, Robert Gavell, and Henry Baldwin, 1661); C5/592/2 (Rebecca Bickerstaffe vs. William Bickerstaffe, 1662); C2/CHAS I/B170/46 (Rebecca vs. William Bickerstaffe).

59 P.R.O., SP16/11/21 (Sir George More to the privy council, 5 Dec 1625); E401/2586 (loan assessment, Surrey); E178/7284 (schedule of knighthood defaulters).

60 P.R.O., E134/19 Jas I/T2, depositions of George Gyldon of Kingston and Elizabeth Dalton Weybridge; E134/9 Jas I/H7.

61 Skinners' Hall, London, Skinners' company register of apprenticeships and freedoms 1601–94, fos. 48, 83, 194 (I am grateful to the clerk of the Skinners' company for permission to consult records held at Skinners' Hall); P.R.O., E179/251/22 (poll tax assessments, by company, 1641), fo. 26IV; G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/13, fo. 95.

62 P.R.O. Prob. II/248, fos. 393V–5 (will of Antony Bickerstaffe of Christ Church parish London, citizen and Skinner, 19 May 1654): Jenkyn was an executor of the will and was left 20s. for preaching a sermon.

63 Corporation of London Record Office (C.L.R.O.), Journal of the court of common council, 40, fo. 153V; Mahony, Michael, ‘Presbyterianism in the City of London, 1645–1647’, Historical Journal, XXII, 1 (1979), 105, IIIGoogle Scholar; Liu, Tai, Puritan London (Newark, New Jersey, 1986), p. 95.Google Scholar

64 Commons Journal (C.J.), V, 216; B.L. 669 fo. 11(30); Five orders and ordinances of parliament for payment of soldiers (London, 1647)Google Scholar. The Walton Bickerstaffes were closely related to the royalist Hayward Bickerstaffe of Godstone, for whom see P.R.O., SP23/186/890–900 (composition papers, Hayward Bickerstaffe); SP28/218 (unfol.), breviate of Surrey sequestrations; Prob. 11/207, fo. 101 (will of Hayward Bickerstaffe of Godstone, 15 May 1647); E317/41/44, pp. 7–8; Lords Journal (L.J.), V, 686; VI, 53.

65 Skinners' Hall, register 1601–94, ff. 87, 108V; C.L.R.O., CF1/25/131V (Henry Bickerstaffe, certificate of freedom, 11 April 1633).

66 For apprentices taken on by Anthony Bickerstaffe in the years 1635–46, see Skinners' Hall, register 1601–94, fos. 117, 124, 145V, 154, 155.

67 P.R.O., E179/251/22, fo. 222V; Dale, T. C. (ed.), The members of the City companies in 1641 (London, 1935), p. 18Google Scholar. (I am grateful to Robert Dalton for this reference.)

68 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 39. His son was baptized at Cobham on 1 Jan. 1640; as residents of Painshill, the Bickerstaffes attended Cobham church rather than the more distant church of Walton: pp. 10, 15, 36, 42, 45.

69 Anthony Bickerstaffe's home was in Newgate market: P.R.O., E317/41/44, p. 9.

70 P.R.O., SP28/177 (unfol.), answers of farmers, fee-farmers and others, Kingston, 21 Nov. 1643.

71 Forresta de Windsor in com. Surrey. The meets, meets, limits and bounds of the forrest of Windsor, in the county of Surrey (London, 1646), p. 13.Google Scholar

72 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), accounts of John Redferne; SP28/180 (unfol.), Walton parish accounts (abstracts), in which the sum of £4 12s 6d. is given; Surrey contributors to the relief ofprotestant refugees from Ireland, 1642, ed. Webb, C. (London: East Surrey Family History Society, 1981).Google Scholar

73 P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 359; SP28/180 (unfol.), Walton parish accounts (abstracts). He collected taxes in Walton for the Farnham garrison in 1645; SP28/177 (unfol.), accounts of Sackford Gunson.

74 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), accounts of Sir John Dingley; SP28/180 (unfol.), Walton parish accounts (abstracts).

75 P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 357; SP28/180 (unfol.), Walton parish accounts (abstracts). Starr had witnessed Robert Bickerstaffe's will: G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/13, fo. 95; the dispute between the two families may therefore have been settled by 1640.

76 Sabine, , Works, p. 266.Google Scholar

77 S.R.O., Kingston parish registers (typescripts), p. 205.

78 P.R.O., C9/243/14 (James Bickerstaffe vs. Henry Bickerstaffe et al., 1659), complaint of James Bickerstaffe, answers of Henry Bickerstaffe, Robert and Winifred Trolliffe and John Fleming; cf. C33/211, fos. 40V, 128, 550. Anthony Bickerstaffe bought Painshill off the state in April 1650; E121/4/8 (certificates of the sale of crown lands, Surrey).

79 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KB/13/3/4 (Kingston gaolers' bonds). Another gaoler was appointed less than 6 months later: KB/13/3/5.

80 Sabine, , Works, pp. 18, 317, 331, 337Google Scholar. The Diggers were still present on St George's Hill when a petition was presented to parliament on 24 July: B.L. E 532(4): The moderate messenger (23–30 July 1649); E 566(4): Moderate intelligencer (19–26 July).

81 Sabine, , Works, pp. 326, 331, 336.Google Scholar

82 B. L. Egerton MS, 2618, fo. 38 (council of state to Fairfax, 10 Oct. 1649); P.R.O., SP25/94, pp. 477–8 (council of state to Surrey justices, 10 Oct.).

83 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 29 Oct., 17 Nov., 1 Dec. 1649; B.L. E575(22): A brief relation (16 Oct. 1649); E575(27): Mercurius elenticus (15–22 Oct.); Sabine, , Works, pp. 19, 360.Google Scholar

84 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/4, m. 40; Clarke papers, II, 216; Sabine, , Works, pp. 365–7.Google Scholar

85 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/10 (home circuit; gen., summer 1650), mm. 149, 151. The date given on the presentments was 1 March.

86 Sabine, , Works, pp. 385, 387Google Scholar, for later references to freeholders.

87 Ibid. pp. 407–15: Englands spirit unfoulded, or an incouragement to take the Engagement (1650), ed. Aylmer, G. E., Past and Present, XL (1968), 9–15Google Scholar; Hill, , Law of freedom, pp. 38–9Google Scholar; Hill, , Religion and politics, p. 218.Google Scholar

88 Sabine, , Works, pp. 407, 412Google Scholar; Hill, , Religion and politics, pp. 205–6.Google Scholar

89 Sabine, , Works, pp. 367–8Google Scholar; cf. pp. 434–5.

90 Ibid. pp. 296, 412.

91 Ibid. p. 412; Aylmer, (ed.), Englands spirit unfoulded, p. 13.Google Scholar

92 Walker, T. E. C., ‘Cobham's manorial history’, Surrey Archaeological Collections (S.A.C.), LVIII (1961), 41Google Scholar. Platt was not resident in Cobham; the manor house was leased to Captain John Inwood of Walton.

93 Sabine, , Works, p. 435.Google Scholar

94 P.R.O. SP18/42/144 (Jerrard Winstanley and John Palmer to the council of state, n.d. [Dec. 1649]); Clarke papers, II 217, for the Diggers' first mention of Platt.

95 Ibid. p. 217; Sabine, , Works, pp. 362, 365–6, 393.Google Scholar

96 Ibid. pp. 433–7.

97 Ibid. pp. 434–6. Sabine's suggestion that this was in fact Sir Francis Vincent is based on an error in Manning, O. and Bray, W., History and antiquities of the county of Surrey (1804–14; reprint Wakefield, 1970), II, 724–5Google Scholar, in which the date of Sir Anthony's death is given as 1642. The error was repeated in Sabine's source, V.C.H. Surrey, III (London, 1911), 286. Vincent did not die until 1656: P.R.O., Prob. II/260, fo. 379 (will of Sir Anthony Vincent of Stoke d'Abernon, 29 May 1654); Bannerman, W. Bruce (ed.), The parish registers of Stoke d'Abernon (London, 1911), p. 34.Google Scholar

98 Sabine, , Works, pp. 392, 433Google Scholar; Hill, , World turned upside down, p. 131Google Scholar; Walker, , ‘Cobham’, p. 49.Google Scholar

99 Clarke papers, II, 216, 218.

100 P.R.O., SP28/177 (unfol.), accounts of Henry Hastings.

101 P.R.O., SP28/214 (unfol.), accounts of Henry Wilcock; cf. SP28/244 funfol.), warrants of JPs to high constables of Elmbridge hundred, 21 April, 1 May, 6 May 1643; SP16/497/85 (assessment commissioners' warrant to high constables of Elmbridge hundred, 16 May 1643). He remained active as a JP: ASSI 35/88/6 (home circuit, gen., autumn 1647); ASSI 35/89/5.

102 P.R.O., SP19/86/57 (Surrey compositions, Holland's rising).

103 Sabine, , Works, pp. 433, 435Google Scholar. For the Sutton family, see Walker, , ‘Manorial history’, pp. 48, 71, 75Google Scholar; Alsop, , ‘Religion and respectability’, pp. 707–8.Google Scholar

104 Fielder, , Petition and appeal, p. 5.Google Scholar

105 P.R.O., Prob. II/227, fo. 134V (will of Thomas Sutton of Cobham, gent, 2 Sep. 1650); SP28/179 (unfol.), Cobham parish accounts; SP28/244 (unfol.), county committee warrant to Sackford Gunson, 7 Nov. 1644; ASSI 35/92/8 (Kingston, July 1651); ASSI 35/93/5 (Southwark, March 1652); ASSI 35/93/7 (Kingston, July 1652); ASSI 35/94/7 (Southwark, March 1653).

106 Sabine, , Works, pp. 419–47.Google Scholar

107 Ibid. pp. 433–5.

108 Ibid. pp. 435–6.

109 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/10, mm. 119–22.

110 Sabine, , Works, pp. 420–1, 433–7Google Scholar. Easter day was 14 April; Winstanley claimed that the attack took place on ‘Fryday in Easter week’, i.e. the 19th.

111 Ibid. pp. 266, 277, 413–14, 440; Clarke papers, II, 217; P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/4, m. 40; S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 23 June 1649.

112 Above, note 85.

113 Barton, Edsarr, Mills and Lowry are not mentioned elsewhere as Diggers or Digger sympathisers; only male Diggers signed Digger manifestoes.

114 P.R.O., SP28/244 (unfol.), county committee warrant to high constables of Elmbridge hundred, 29 Nov. 1643; Bannerman, , Stoke parish registers, pp. 3, 33, 46Google Scholar; Surrey hearth tax 1664 (ed. C. A. F. Meekings, Kingston, Surrey Record Society, 1940), pp. 27, 46, 135. In the draft indictments, the accused were all said to be of Cobham, the scene of the alleged offence.

115 Sabine, , Works, p. 434Google Scholar; P.R.O., Prob. II/260, fo. 378V.

116 P.R.O., SP28/245 (unfol.), accounts of Augustine Phillips.

117 S.R.O., Ace. 317/566/IX (Cobham court rolls, 1647 and 1648); Ace. 2610/11/8/33 (Cobham manor court book, 1624–31), pp. 35, 39, 53; G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 10, 18, 19, 25–6, 45, 48–9, 92–3; P.R.O., SC12/22/34 (schedule of quit-rents, Cobham, 1626); G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/10, fo. 144 (will of John Melsham the elder of Cobham, yeoman, 6 Nov. 1620).

118 Surrey quarter sessions records: order book and sessions rolls 1663–1666 (ed. Powell, D. L. and Jenkinson, H., Kingston, Surrey Record Society, 1938), p. 3Google Scholar; cf. G.M.R., PSH/COB/5/1 (Cobham church book 1588–1839), accounts for 1662, 1663, 1667, 1669, 1670, for receipts by Goose of parish relief.

119 P.R.O., ASSI 35/92/8; above, note 15.

120 Quarter sessions records 1663–6, p. 72.Google Scholar

121 P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 359; SP28/159 (unfol.), schedule of assessments, Surrey, middle division, 1645–6; SP28/177 (unfol.), Stoke d'Abernon parish accounts; SP28/178 (unfol.), accounts of Sackford Gunson; SP28/179 (unfol.), Cobham parish accounts.

122 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), accounts of Henry Hastings and John Redferne; S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

123 Clarke Papers, II, 210.

124 Petegorsky, , Left-wing democracy, p. 124Google Scholar; Alsop, , ‘Later life’, pp. 73–5Google Scholar. The most detailed accounts of his business failure are Alsop, ‘Ethics in the marketplace’ and Dalton, ‘Experience of fraud’.

125 G.L., MS 4415/1 (St Olave Jewry vestry minutes), fo. 118.

126 P.R.O., SP28/178 (unfol.), county committee warrant to high constables of Elmbridge hundred, 20 Dec. 1643; SP28/245 (unfol.), accounts of Augustine Phillips.

127 S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX; Sabine, , Works, pp. 328–34Google Scholar; Walker, , ‘Manorial history’, p. 70.Google Scholar

128 Clarke papers, 11, 210.

129 S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX; ASSI 35/91/4, m. 40; S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 23 June 1649; Sabine, , Works, pp. 266, 277, 414, 440.Google Scholar

130 G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/12, fo. 495 (will of Edmund Starr of Cobham, clothworker, 26 May 1638); G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 5, 7, 11, 16, 39.

131 S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

132 Sabine, , Works, p. 328.Google Scholar

133 Quarter sessions records 1663–6, p. 241.Google Scholar

134 Sabine, , Works, pp. 266, 277, 414Google Scholar; Clarke papers, 11, 217.

135 For Coulton and his family, see S.R.O., Acc. 2610/11/8/33, PP. 35, 39, 53; Acc. 317/566/VIII (Cobham court rolls, 1613–23); Acc. 317/566/IX; G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 5, 7, 16, 17, 19, 26, 28, 31, 35, 44, 52, 55; PSH/COB/5/1, accounts for 1629–30; P.R.O., SC2/204/43 (Cobham court rolls, 5 Eliz. 12 Jas I); SC12/22/34; Daly, (ed.), Kingston apprentices, p. 48.Google Scholar

136 P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 359; SP28/177 (unfol.), accounts of Sackford Gunson; SP28/179 (unfol.), accounts of Henry Hastings and John Redferne.

137 P.R.O., SP28/35, fo. 356; SP28/179 (unfol.), Cobham parish accounts.

138 S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

139 P.R.O., Prob. 11/224, fo. 307V (will of john Coulton of Cobham, yeoman, 15 June 1652). The will was proved 14 Sep. 1652.

140 S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

141 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 41, 45; S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

142 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 44, 54, 57.

143 P.R.O., Prob. II/298, fo. 300 (will of Francis Stint the elder of Cobham, husbandman, 24 April 1658). Nathaniel Coulton, John Coulton's nephew, was one of the overseers.

144 P.R.O., E179/257/30 (Surrey hearth tax returns, 1663); G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 75.

145 Sabine, , Works, pp. 277, 413–4, 440Google Scholar; Clarke papers, II, 217.

146 P.R.O., RG6/956 (Kingston quaker registers, 1658–1779), p. 7; RG6/1240 (registers, 1649–73). P. 3.

147 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 44, 45.

148 G.M.R., PSH/COB/5/1, accounts for 1657; P.R.O., ASSI 35/94/12 (home circuit; gen., summer 1653), m. 121; ASSI 35/99/7 (Southwark, March 1658). Also charged with Johnson was Thomas Ward of Cobham. A Thomas Ward stood surety for Henry Bickerstaffe in Kingston court in June 1649 (S.R.O., KE1/1/14). On 12 April 1650, at the height of the campaign against the Diggers, Thomas Ward of Cobham was informed against for having fought for the king in the Civil War: P.R.O., SP19/22, p. 37. Thomas Ward of Kingston was awarded a royalist pension in 1663: Surrey quarter sessions records: order book and sessions rolls 1661–3, ed. Powell, D. L. and Jenkinson, H. (Kingston: Surrey Record Society, 1935), p. 70.Google Scholar

149 P.R.O., Prob. II/298, fo. 300.

150 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 60; PSH/COB/5/1, accounts for 1662; Meekings, , Surrey hearth tax, p. 60Google Scholar; G.L.R.O., DW/PC/1/1, fo. 53V (will of Mary Freeland of Cobham, Feb. 1665).

151 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 44; S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

152 Details of baptisms from 1644 were not registered until 1656; records of marriages and burials were not collected; G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 1, 47.

153 Sabine, , Works, p. 434 (my italics).Google Scholar

154 Possibly the illegitimate son of Julian Palmer, baptized in Cobham Nov. 1611 (G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 5), or the son of John Palmer of Cobham, blacksmith, apprenticed in 1626 to Stedwell, William of Kingston, , baker: Daly, (ed.), Kingston apprentices, p. 36Google Scholar. A Cobham resident was fined in 1630 for receiving a John Palmer as an inmate in his cottage: S.R.O., Acc. 2610/11 /8/33, p. 37. John Palmer of Cobham had two hearths in 1664, and was exempted from the hearth tax: Meekings, , Surrey hearth tax, p. 116.Google Scholar

155 In 1664 ‘Ould South’ of Cobham had one hearth (exempt). He was in receipt of parish relief in 1668 (Old South), and in 1669 and 1670 (John South): G.M.R., PSH/COB/5/1. John South was buried in 1672: PSH/COB/1/1, p. 71.

156 He married Phoebe Coulton, whose grandfather Robert was the brother of John Coulton the Digger, in 1658. Their children were baptized in 1659, 1663, 1666, 1669 and 1674: G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, pp. 53–4, 58, 61, 66, 74; G.L.R.O., DW/PC/5/1665/Coulton, Robert (will of Robert Coulton of Burwood in Walton, husbandman, 24 Feb. 1665); DW/PC/5/1665/Coulton, Joseph (will of Joseph Coulton of Cobham the elder, 23 Jan. 1665). Thomas South had 2 hearths in 1663 and was in receipt of relief in 1674: P.R.O., E179/257/30; G.M.R., PSH/COB/5/1.

157 Anthony Wrenn was, until 1649, occupier of a warren house leased from George Evelyn of Wotton: Walker, , ‘Cobham's manorial history’, p. 76Google Scholar; Taylor, D. C., ‘Old Mistral, Cobham: a sixteenth-century warrener's house identified’, S.A.C. LXXIX (1989), 119Google Scholar. David Taylor also identifies Wrenn as a Digger.

158 Sabine, , Works, pp. 266, 277, 413, 440Google Scholar; Clarke papers, 11, 217; P.R.O., SP18/42/144; ASSI 35/91/4, m. 40; ASSI 35/91/10, mm. 119–22.

159 Sabine, , Works, pp. 266, 277, 413, 440Google Scholar; Clarke papers, 11, 217.

160 Bannerman, , Stoke parish registers, pp. 4, 6, 7Google Scholar; Meekings, , Surrey hearth tax, p. 52.Google Scholar

161 Thomas, , ‘Another Digger broadside’, pp. 649–50.Google Scholar

162 For which, see Hardacre, P. H., ‘Gerrard Winstanley in 1650’, Huntington Library Quarterly, XXII. 4 (1959).Google Scholar

163 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/4, m. 40. These included Winstanley, Barton, Starr, Palmer, Edsaw, Bickerstaffe and Maidley.

164 P.R.O., ASSI 35/91/5 (Croydon, July 1650); ASSI 35/92/7 (Southwark, March 1651); ASSI 35/92/8; ASSI 35/93/5; ASSI 35/94/8 (Croydon, July 1653).

165 P.R.O., Prob. 11/224, fo. 307V; S.R.O., Acc. 317/566/IX.

166 G.M.R., PSH/COB/1/1, p. 47; Walker, T. E. C., ‘Cobham incumbents and curates’, S.A.C. LXXI (1977), 209Google Scholar; Matthews, A. G., Walker revised (Oxford, 1948), p. 310.Google Scholar

167 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), accounts of Henry Hastings and John Redferne; Cobham parish accounts; Webb, Ireland; Matthews, A. G., Calamy revised (Oxford, 1934), p. 226Google Scholar; cf. Dalton, , ‘Experience of fraud’, p. 977Google Scholar. It is not clear whether he was ever formally instituted as vicar of Cobham.

168 Aubrey, , History of Surrey, III, 126Google Scholar; Manning, and Bray, , History, I, CXIX.Google Scholar

169 Sabine, , Works, p. 326.Google Scholar

170 G.L., MS 4415/1, fos. 101–5V, 109V. Winstanley first attended on 30 Apr. 1641, and the last occasion was 19 Jan. 1643; 14 meetings are known to have taken place during this period.

171 G.L., MS 4415/1, fo. 104; cf. Pearl, V., London and the outbreak of the puritan revolution (Oxford, 1961), pp. 54–6.Google Scholar

172 Tai, Liu, Puritan London, p. 108Google Scholar; G.L., MS 4415/1, fo. 101V, for Feake; Lindley, Keith, ‘London and popular freedom in the 1640s’, in Freedom and the English revolution, ed Richardson, R. C. and Ridden, G. M. (Manchester, 1986), p. 139.Google Scholar

173 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KD5/1/2 (Kingston chamberlains' accounts, 1638–1710), p. 63; P.R.O., SP28/244 (unfol.), county committee warrant to Sackford Gunson, 15 Aug. 1644.

174 B.L. E 278(20): Richard, Byfield, Temple-defilers defiled (1645), passimGoogle Scholar; cf. Mayo, Richard, The life and death of Edmund Staunton (London, 1673), pp. 11–12Google Scholar, for Staunton's problems with ‘wrangling persons’ in Kingston.

175 Fielder, , Petition and appeal, pp. 1–5, 13–17, 20–3Google Scholar; P.R.O., SP24/61 (unfol.), Lidgold vs. Fielder, petition of Richard Lidgold and John Childe to committee of indemnity, 3 May 1650; Solt, ‘Winstanley, Lilburne, Fielder’, pp. 120, 127.

176 Sabine, , Works, p. 99.Google Scholar

177 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE2/7/3; KE2/7/4; KE2/7/12 (papers relating to the arrest and conviction of sectaries, 1664 and 1670); P.R.O., RG6/956; RG6/1240; Besse, Joseph, A collection of the sufferings of the people called quakers (London, 1753), I, 698, 707.Google Scholar

178 Fielder, , Petition and appeal, p. 2Google Scholar; Sabine, , Works, p. 277.Google Scholar

179 G.L.R.O., DW/PA/7/9, fo. 265V (will of Urian Worthington of New Windsor, Berks, yeoman, 20 April 1615); DW/PA/7/10, fo. 94 (will of john Worthington of Thorpe, husbandman, n.d., proved Nov. 1619).

180 Quarter sessions records 1663–6, p. 176; Besse, Sufferings, 1, 699; Van, , ‘Diggers and quakers’, p. 66.Google Scholar

181 S.R.O., Kingston archives, KE1/1/14, 17 Nov. 1649. Gosse also later became a quaker.

182 V.C.H. Surrey, III, 443–4; Walker, , ‘Manorial history’, pp. 48–50.Google Scholar

183 P.R.O., REQ 2/34/23 (William Wrenn vs. Robert Gavell); REQ 2/157/503 (Wrenn vs. Gavell, papers 1579–94); REQ 2/159/192 (Wrenn vs. Gavell, depositions 1577).

184 P.R.O., REQ 2/159/13 (Anthony Bickerstaffe et al. vs. Robert and Francis Gavell, Chancery depositions 1594); SP15/33/74 (William King et al. vs. Robert and Francis Gavell, Chancery bill and related documents). (Anthony Bickerstaffe was the father of Robert Bickerstaffe of Walton.)

185 P.R.O., SP15/40/48(1) (note of Francis Gavell's debts and legacies).

186 P.R.O., REQ 2/159/13; SP15/33/74.

187 P.R.O., SP15/33/74, answer of Robert and Francis Gavell.

188 P.R.O., SP46/19/212 (draft order, court of Kings Bench, 21 Nov. 1593).

189 P.R.O., REQ 2/159/13, depositions of James Smyth and James Hypkin of Cobham, labourers, 1594; Prob. 11/320, fo. 103 (will of William King, 6 June 1664); Alsop, , ‘Religion and respectability’, p. 707.Google Scholar

190 S.R.O., 2610/1/38/22 (court of Wards order, 1638); Walker, , Manorial history', p. 49.Google Scholar

191 For the economic and social background, see especially Hill, , World turned upside down, pp. 107–8Google Scholar; Hill, , Law of freedom, pp. 22–6Google Scholar; cf. Thomas, , ‘Another Digger broadside’, p. 58Google Scholar; Sabine, , Works, pp. 263, 265, 414–15, 431–2, 650.Google Scholar

192 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), Cobham parish accounts. Taxes paid before the outbreak of war amounted to £96 I Is. 10d. wartime assessments to £464 17s. 8d. (including the second moiety of the £400,000 tax, which was not raised in Surrey until 1643), and the excise to £142 8d.

193 P.R.O., SP28/178 (unfol.), Egham parish accounts (n.d., April or May 1645). Tooting's inhabitants had spent only £120 13s. 3d. in free quarter by Feb. 1645; Woodmansterne's bill was just over £40: SP28/178, Tooting parish accounts; SP28/180 (unfol.), Woodmansterne parish accounts (abstracts).

194 The quote is from John Platt and his West Horsley parishioners: P.R.O., SP28/177 (unfol), West Horsley parish accounts (Nov. 1645).

195 P.R.O., SP28/179 (unfol.), Cobham parish accounts; Dalton, ‘Experience of fraud’, p. 976. These were inhabitants of Street Cobham, which lay on the Portsmouth road.

196 P.R.O., SP19/98/90A (certif. of committee for the safety of Surrey on behalf of Capt. John Inwood of Walton, 6 May 1645); SP28/11, fo. 170 (petition of [Elizabeth Hammond] of Chertsey, n.d.); SP28/177 (unfol), answers of farmers, fee-farmers and others, 21 Nov. 1643; Byfleet parish accounts; Chertsey parish accounts; SP28/178 (unfol.), Egham parish accounts; SP28/180 (unfol.), Walton parish accounts (abstracts); Calendar of the proceedings of the committee for advance of money 1642–56, ed. Green, M. A. E. (London, 1888), p. 40Google Scholar. Francis Drake's house in Walton was plundered: B. L. Harl. MS 164 (Parliamentary diary of Sir Simonds D'Ewes), fos. 290–290V.

197 House of Lords Record Office (H.L.R.O.), main papers 1647, 20 Nov., petition of John Turner; 19 Nov., Sir Thomas Fairfax to Robert Scawen; P.R.O., SP24/47 (unfol.), petition of ‘the farmers of Surrey’ to Fairfax; V.C.H. Surrey, I, 413–14.

198 Morrill, and Walter, , ‘Order and disorder’Google Scholar, passim.

199 cf. Hughes, A., Politics, society and civil war in Warwickshire, 1620–1660 (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 265–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the exacerbation of social tensions in Warwicks.

200 Examples of conflict in Surrey during the 1640s are discussed in Gurney, J. R., ‘The county of Surrey and the English revolution’ (unpublished D.Phil, thesis, University of Sussex, 1991), pp. 238–45.Google Scholar

201 For example, Sabine, , Works, pp. 256, 259, 260, 263–4, 282, 286, 303, 305, 667, 672Google Scholar; Clarke papers, II, 215; Aylmer, (ed.), England's spirit unfoulded, p. 12Google Scholar; cf. B.L. E 252(30): A perfect diumall of some passages in parliament (22–9 April 1644)Google Scholar; E518(18): A perfect diurnall 9–16 Aug. 1647); E 518(20); Perfect occurrences of every day iournall in parliament (Aug. 1647)Google Scholar; Rushworth, J., Historical collections (London, 1721), VII, 77Google Scholar, for the expression of similar complaints by others.

202 Sabine, , Works, p. 506.Google Scholar

203 Dalton, , ‘Experience of fraud’, p. 975Google Scholar; Gurney, , ‘County of Surrey’, p. 245Google Scholar. The list is in P.R.O., SP28/245 (unfol.).

204 P.R.O., SP28/178 (unfol.), county committee warrant to high constables of Elmbridge hundred, 20 Dec. 1643; revised schedules for Elmbridge hundred, 10 Jan. 1644.

205 At least two Walton residents were charged in both Walton and London on the 3-month assessment of 1643; P.R.O., E179/187/467 (accounts of Henry Hastings).

206 Both the 3-month and 2-month weekly assessment were raised as lump sums in Surrey; neither came to form the basis of a permanent local weekly tax, as happened in several other counties. A quite separate weekly assessment was raised in Surrey to meet local expenses; Winstanley would therefore have good reason to complain if charged on the 2-month assessment in both London and Surrey.

207 P.R.O. E178/6049 (investigation into spoils and destruction of woods and deer in Berks, Hants, Surrey and Kent, 1644), account of Alexander Hayes.

208 P.R.O., SP28/139, part 10, accounts of Charles Ghest.

209 P.R.O., E178/6049; cf. Thompson, E. P., Whigs and hunters (Harmondsworth, 1977), pp. 136, 244Google Scholar, for the survival of this custom in Alice Holt.

210 H.L.R.O., main papers 1646, 2 June, affidavit of William Smith.

211 G.M.R., Loseley manuscripts, LM Cor. 5/79, 83 (John Wight to Sir Poynings More, 30 March and 11 May 1646). (I am grateful to Mr J. R. More-Molyneux for permission to cite documents in his possession.)

212 P.R.O., ASSI 35/90/8 (home circuit: gen., summer 1649), mm. 78–81.

213 P.R.O., SP25/63, pp. 352, 414–15, 427, 429.

214 The only Digger name from Oatlands was William Smith, a name found at this date in Walton, Cobham and Kingston. For earlier claims that locals frequently took wood from trees illegally felled in Oatlands park, see East Sussex Record Office, GLY 272 (articles against James Fowler, 1638).

215 Sabine, , Works, pp. 272, 363–4Google Scholar, for Digger claims to crown lands and to the wood on the commons. Winstanley had himself been presented for cutting peat in 1646: Hill, , Religion and politics, pp. 192, 202Google Scholar; cf. Sabine, , Works, p. 273.Google Scholar

216 P.R.O., SP25/95, p. 11; Petegorsky, , Left-wing democracy, p. 175.Google Scholar

217 L.J., x, 260–1, for the 1648 Surrey petition.

218 Sabine, , Works, p. 179Google Scholar; P.R.O., SP18/42/144.

219 Sabine, , Works, pp. 263, 414–15Google Scholar; cf. pp. 263, 431–2.

220 Ibid. pp. 256, 286; P.R.O., SP18/42/144; cf. Aylmer, (ed.), Englands spirit unfoulded, p. 13Google Scholar; Sabine, , Works, pp. 285, 415.Google Scholar