John Lilburne
John Lilburne (c. 1614 – 29 August 1657), also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after the English Civil Wars 1642–1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law.[1] In his early life he was a Puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a Quaker. His works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court.[2]
For the 14th-century politician, see John Lilborne.
John Lilburne
1614
Sunderland, County Durham, England
1642–1645
Early life[edit]
John Lilburne was the son of Richard Lilburne, heir to "a modest manorial holding" at Thickley Punchardon near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and his wife Margaret (d. 1619), daughter of Thomas Hixon.[3][4] He was probably born in Sunderland,[5] but the exact date of his birth is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613, 1614, or 1615. His father, Richard Lilburne, was the last man in England to insist that he should be allowed to settle a legal dispute with a trial by combat until Abraham Thornton did so in 1818.[6] John's elder brother Robert Lilburne also later became active in the Parliamentary cause but seems not to have shared John's Leveller beliefs. By his own account Lilburne received the first ten years of his education in Newcastle, almost certainly at the Royal Free Grammar School.[7] He also had some schooling in Bishop Auckland.[8]
In the 1630s, he was apprenticed to John Hewson,[9] who introduced him to the Puritan physician John Bastwick, an active pamphleteer against Episcopacy who was prosecuted by Archbishop William Laud. Lilburne's connection with Bastwick, whose "Litany" he had a hand in printing, obliged him to flee to the Netherlands.[8]
"Freeborn John"[edit]
On his return from Holland, Lilburne was arrested (11 December 1637) for printing and circulating unlicensed books,[8] particularly William Prynne's News from Ipswich, that were not licensed by the Stationers' Company. At that time all printing presses and publications were required to be licensed, and publishers were liable to the Court of High Commission.[10]
Upon his arrest on information from a Stationers' Company informant, Lilburne was brought before the Court of Star Chamber. Instead of being charged with an offence, he was asked how he pleaded. In his examinations he refused to take the oath known as the ex officio oath (on the grounds that he was not bound to incriminate himself), and thus called into question the court's usual procedure.[11] As he persisted in his contumacy, he was sentenced on 13 February 1638 to be fined £500, whipped, pilloried, and imprisoned till he obeyed.[12]
On 18 April 1638, Lilburne was flogged 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. He was then forced to stoop in the pillory, where he still managed to campaign against his censors while distributing more unlicensed literature to the crowds. He was then gagged. Finally he was taken back to the court and again imprisoned. During his imprisonment in Fleet he was cruelly treated.[13]
While in prison, however, he managed to write and to get printed in 1638 an account of his own punishment styled The Work of the Beast, and in 1639 an apology entitled Come out of her, my people for separation from the Church of England.[8]
Upon his release, Lilburne married Elizabeth Dewell (a London merchant's daughter) in September 1641. Lilburne's agitation continued: the same year he led a group of armed citizens against a group of Royalist officers, who retreated. That was the first in a long series of trials that lasted throughout his life for what John Lilburne called his "freeborn rights", including the right to hear the accusation, the right to face one's accusers, and the right to avoid self-incrimination.[14] As a result of these trials a growing number of supporters began to call him "Freeborn John" and even struck a medal in his honour to that effect. It is this trial that has been cited by constitutional jurists and scholars in the United States of America as being one of the historical foundations of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is also cited within the 1966 majority opinion of Miranda v. Arizona by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Quarrels with William Prynne[edit]
Besides the feuds he had with officers in the army, Lilburne soon engaged in a quarrel with William Prynne. On 7 January 1645 he addressed a letter to Prynne, attacking the intolerance of the Presbyterians, and claiming freedom of conscience and freedom of speech for the independents,[19] Prynne, bitterly incensed, procured a vote of the Commons summoning Lilburne before the committee for examinations (17 January 1645). When he appeared (17 May 1645) the committee discharged him with a caution.[20] A second time (18 June 1645) Prynne caused Lilburne to be brought before the same committee, on a charge of publishing unlicensed pamphlets, but he was again dismissed unpunished. Prynne vented his malice in a couple of pamphlets: A Fresh Discovery of prodigious Wandering: Stars and Firebrands, and The Liar Confounded, to which Lilburne replied in Innocency and Truth Justified (1645). Dr. John Bastwick took a minor part in the same controversy.[15]
Agitation[edit]
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. He also advocated extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance. His enemies branded him as a Leveller but Lilburne responded that he was a "Leveller so-called". To him it was a pejorative label which he did not like. He called his supporters "Agitators". 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 Lilburne began his campaign, another group led by Gerrard Winstanley styling themselves True Levellers (that became known as Diggers), advocated equality in property as well as political rights.
Putney Debates[edit]
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. It was while he was incarcerated that he wrote his tract, England's Birthright Justified.
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. It was the campaign to free him from prison which spawned the political party called the Levellers. 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[21] between 28 October and 11 November 1647, the debate centred upon a pamphlet influenced by the writings of Lilburne called An Agreement of the People for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right.[22]
Written constitution[edit]
Lilburne was instrumental in the writing of two more editions of this famous document. The second, An Agreement of the People of England, and the places therewith incorporated, for a secure and present peace, upon grounds of common right, freedom and safety,[23] was presented to Parliament on 11 September 1648 after amassing signatories including about a third of all Londoners.
Following the defeat of the Royalists and the abolition of the monarchy and House of Lords, England became a commonwealth in 1649 with the regicide of Charles I. It was while he was in the Tower of London that Lilburne, William Walwyn, Thomas Prince and Richard Overton wrote the third edition of An Agreement of the Free People of England. Tendered as a Peace-Offering to this distressed Nation.[24] They hoped that this document would be signed like a referendum so that it would become a written constitution for the Commonwealth of England. The United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who often cited the works of Lilburne in his opinions, wrote in an entry for Encyclopædia Britannica that he believed Lilburne's constitutional work of 1649 was the basis for the basic rights contained in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Quakerism and death[edit]
In 1656, he was allowed to leave Dover Castle during the daytime to visit his wife and children, who had settled in Dover. It was here that Lilburne met Luke Howard, a Quaker whose serenity impressed him and began the process of his own conversion. Lilburne declared himself a convert to the tenets of the Quakers, and announced his conversion in a letter to his wife.[55] General Fleetwood showed a copy of this letter to the Protector, who was at first inclined to regard it merely as a politic device to escape imprisonment. When Cromwell was convinced that Lilburne really intended to live peaceably, he released him on parole from prison, and seems to have continued till his death the pension of 40s. a week allowed him for his maintenance during his imprisonment.[56] Later he was permitted to stay away from prison for several days at a time and took to visiting Quaker congregations in Kent.[55]
In the summer of 1657, while visiting his wife, who was expecting their tenth child,[57] Lilburne died at Eltham 29 August 1657, and was buried at Moorfields, "in the new churchyard adjoining to Bedlam".[58]
On 21 January 1659 Elizabeth Lilburne petitioned Richard Cromwell for the discharge of the fine imposed on her husband by the act of 30 Jan. 1652, and her request was granted. Parliament on a similar petition recommended the repealing of the act, and the recommendation was carried by the restored Long Parliament on 15 August 1659.[59]
Bibliography[edit]
A bibliographical list of Lilburne's pamphlets compiled by Edward Peacock is printed in Notes and Queries for 1898. Most of them contain autobiographical matter.[64]
Fictional portrayal[edit]
Lilburne was portrayed by Tom Goodman-Hill in the 2008 television drama The Devil's Whore. In this fictional work, Lilburne is shown to have died in prison while being visited by his wife, Elizabeth. He was also played by Michael Pennington in the 1981 television play A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter, and by Gerald Kyd in the 2012 premiere of the play 55 Days.
Lt-Colonel John Lilburne has a regiment in his honour in the Sealed Knot Society (which re-enacts historical battles).
In 1997 the singer-songwriter Rev Hammer released a concept album called Freeborn John[65] telling John Lilburne's story. The album featured musical and vocal contributions from Maddy Prior, Rose Kemp, Eddi Reader, Rory McLeod, members of Levellers, and Justin Sullivan alongside other members of New Model Army.
John Lilburne Award[edit]
The Citizens in Charge Foundation, honours a person or organisation every month who stands up for initiative and referendum rights in the US.