Example of a Libertas Article

Who did they think they were?

Don't know your Seekers from your Quakers? Your Diggers from your Ranters? Do you think the Levellers were just a rock group? Then take Martin S’s brief but helpful guide to the religious and political groups around the time of the civil war.

Number 5: The Diggers

The Diggers were radical puritans who favoured the abolition of private ownership of land. The Diggers were fervent pacifists, and their beliefs were more social rather than political. They are often confused with the Levellers and have also been described as communists.

In April 1649 (three months after the execution of King Charles and between the second and third civil war) a band of about 40 Diggers, led by Gerard Winstanley and William Everard, began to dig uncultivated common land on St George's Hill in Cobham (near Weybridge) in Surrey. They worked for a week and erected tents for living in; as they prepared to cultivate a second hill, they were dispersed by parliamentary troops. Everard and Winstanley were arrested, tried, and sentenced to pay large fines. Despite Parliaments opposition to the experiment, the Cobham colony lasted until 1651.

The Diggers founded other colonies, none of which lasted.

Winstanley wrote several pamphlets explaining the principles of the Diggers. Although he was a fervent Christian, he was against organised religion and the men of the established clergy, claiming that they supported the class structure of society. His last work, The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652) explains his theory of a social system founded on communistic principles. The Digger movement was one of the influences leading to the development of 19th-century radical thought in Great Britain and of socialism today.

Admirers of the Diggers are as diverse as Kenneth Baker the former Conservative minister and singer songwriter Billy Bragg who wrote “The world turned upside down” in their honour.

On the 350th anniversary of the St George's hill commune around 300 marchers converged on the area and wanted to erect a simple stone memorial depicting a large spade in Gerard Winstanley’s honour. The area is now part golf course and part exclusive housing, the golf course did not object to a memorial but the St George’s hill residents did.

The last words (written in 1649) must go to Mr Winstanley himself:

You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
The waste land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
Your digging does maintain, and persons all defame
Stand up now, stand up now.

Your houses they pull down, stand up now, stand up now,
Your houses they pull down, stand up now.
Your houses they pull down to fright your men in town
But the gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

With spades and hoes and plowes, stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plowes stand up now,
Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now, stand up now,
Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now.
Since tyranny came in they count it now no sin
To make a gaol a gin, to starve poor men therein.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The gentrye are all round, stand up now, stand up now,
The gentrye are all round, stand up now.
The gentrye are all round, on each side they are found,
Theire wisdom's so profound, to cheat us of our ground
Stand up now, stand up now.

The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now, stand up now,
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now,
To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise,
The devill in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes.
Stand up now, stand up now.

The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
The clergy they come in, stand up now.
The clergy they come in, and say it is a sin
That we should now begin, our freedom for to win.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The tithes they yet will have, stand up now, stand up now,
The tithes they yet will have, stand up now.
The tithes they yet will have, and lawyers their fees crave,
And this they say is brave, to make the poor their slave.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests, stand up now, stand up now,
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests stand up now.
For tyrants they are both even flatt againnst their oath,
To grant us they are loath free meat and drink and cloth.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The club is all their law, stand up now, stand up now,
The club is all their law, stand up now.
The club is all their law to keep men in awe,
But they no vision saw to maintain such a law.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now, stand up now,
The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now;
The Cavaleers are foes, themselves they do disclose
By verses not in prose to please the singing boyes.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

To conquer them by love, come in now, come in now
To conquer them by love, come in now;
To conquer them by love, as it does you behove,
For hee is King above, noe power is like to love, Glory heere, Diggers all

Editors Note: This song can be heard along with other good songs on Chumbawumbas English Rebel Songs 1381-1914 – One Little Indian Records Ltd. Tplp64CD.