Pamphleteer and extreme Leveller (Puritan), probably born in Greenwich, EC Greater London, UK, but with family origins in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. In 1638 he imported illegal Puritan literature from Holland, for which he was whipped, and imprisoned until 1640 by the Star Chamber. He was a captain in the Parliamentary army in the Civil War (1642), but resigned in 1645 over the Covenant. He became an indefatigable agitator for the Levellers, demanding greater liberty of conscience and numerous reforms, and was repeatedly imprisoned for his treasonable pamphlets.
John Lilburne (1614?–August 29, 1657), also known as Freeborn John, was an Agitator in England before, during and after the English Civil Wars of 1642–1650.
Early life
John Lilburne was born in servant's quarters at the old palace at Greenwich, a child of middle level but still prosperous members of the royal court. His family had originated in Sunderland, in North-East England where his uncle Richard Lilburne became one of the first members of Parliament to represent the county of Durham.
In the 1630s he was apprenticed to John Hewson who introduced him to the Puritan physician John Bastwick, an active pamphleteer against Episcopacy who was persecuted by Archbishop William Laud.
Unlicensed publishing
In 1638 and age 22, John Lilburne imported into England religious publications from Holland which were not licensed by The Stationers' Company (known after 1937 as the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers).
"Freeborn John"
John Lilburne was arrested upon information by an informer acting for The Stationers' Company and brought before the Court of Star Chamber. John Lilburne demanded to be presented in English with the charges brought against him (much of the written legal work of the time was in Latin). The Court refused Lilburne's request. Again John Lilburne demanded to know the charges brought against him.
The authorities then resorted to flogging him with a three-thonged whip on his bare back, as he was dragged by his hands tied to the rear of an ox cart from Fleet Prison to the pillory at Westminster.
This began the first in a long series of trials that lasted throughout his life for what John Lilburne called his "freeborn rights".
English Civil War
In the First English Civil War he enlisted as a captain in the Parliamentary army commanded by the Earl of Essex and fought at the Battle of Edgehill. As the first prominent Roundhead captured in the war, the Royalists intended to try Lilburne for high treason. But when Parliament threatened to execute Royalist prisoners in reprisal, Lilburne was exchanged for a Royalist officer.
In April 1645, Lilburne resigned from the Army, because he refused to sign the Presbyterian Solemn League and Covenant, on the grounds that the covenant deprived those who might swear it of freedom of religion, namely members of the parliamentary army.
Agitation
John Lilburne then began in earnest his campaign of agitation for freeborn rights, the rights that all Englishmen are born with, which are different from privileges bestowed by a monarch or a government. His enemies branded him as a Leveller but Lilburne responded that he was a "Leveller so-called." It was feared that "Levellers" wanted to level property rights, but Lilburne wanted to level human basic rights which he called "freeborn rights."
At the same time that John Lilburne began his campaign, another group led by Gerrard Winstanley became known as Diggers (True Levellers).
Putney debates
Lilburne was imprisoned from July to October 1645 for denouncing Members of Parliament who lived in comfort while the common soldiers fought and died for the Parliamentary cause.
In July 1646, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for denouncing his former commander the Earl of Manchester as a traitor and Royalist sympathiser. Lilburne called them "Levellers so-called" because he viewed himself as an agitator for freeborn rights.
The Levellers had a strong following in the New Model Army with whom his work was influential. When the Army held the Putney Debates between October 28, and November 11, 1647, the debate centered around a pamphlet based upon the writings of John Lilburne called An Agreement of the People for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right.
Written Constitution
There were two more editions of this famous document.
Following the defeat of the Royalists and the abolition of the monarchy and House of Lords, England became a republic in 1649 with the regicide of Charles I. It was while he was in the Tower of London that John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince and Richard Overton wrote the third edition of An Agreement of the Free People of England. The late United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who often cited the works of John Lilburne in his opinions, wrote in an article for Encyclopædia Britannica that he believed John Lilburne's constitutional work of 1649 was the basis for the basic rights contained in the U.S. Constitution.
After his acquittal by Parliament on the charge of treason in 1649, Lilburne turned to other legal matters involving his extended family. John Lilburne was held in prison because Cromwell viewed Lilburne as a political threat.
Quaker
During this period of solitude John Lilburne became a Quaker and he turned to a form of personal and quiet religion. Upon hearing of his release Oliver Cromwell gave orders for his immediate return to prison, but in the meantime John Lilburne had died on August 29, 1657.
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