About John Lilburne

Also known as “Freeborn John”, was one of the most famous, exciting and influential characters from the English Civil War period. As one of the most radical free thinkers and political agitators of the Civil War Period, he was a founder and staunch member of the Leveller movement, fighting all his life against tyranny, and for liberty and democracy for all men.

Lilburne’s chief weapons in this battle were the spoken and written word. He expressed his beliefs and opinions in public speeches and these ideas were circulated to the masses in printed pamphlets. Such openly provocative behaviour made him many friends and also, many enemies, but his principals were so firmly rooted that he was prepared to suffer corporal punishment and even imprisonment for his beliefs.

In 1614/15 John Lilburne was born at the Royal Palace, Greenwich to Richard Lilburne (a courtier) and his wife Margaret. His mother died when he was still a child and John was taken to his ancestral home in what is now East Thickley in County Durham. The family were landed gentry here and owned land which stretched from North Yorkshire to Northumberland. John left school at the age of 15, after study at Auckland and Newcastle schools, to travel to London to seek his fortune. Here he was apprenticed to a wool trader for 5 years. It was at this time that John became heavily influenced by the Puritan Revolutionary movement and consequently subscribed to their cause. Lilburne tormented Parliamentarian grandees with radical religious tracts, public disdain for authority, defiant performances in court, and a passion for self-publicity. His clandestine printing network became the focus for high-level concern. Moreover, he gave voice to the concerns of soldiers and apprentices, and sought to mobilise a mass movement from within the army and the City of London through political meetings, financial subscriptions and fiery pamphlets scattered in the streets and dispersed among the troops. Through such means, Lilburne threatened to turn a newly politicised populace into a movement, independent of the political elite and conscious of its own economic, religious and political interests.

In 1638 John Lilburne opposed the episcopate by insulting Bishop Laud. He was arrested, tried by the Star Chamber Court for seditious libel and fined 500 pounds. He was also beaten through the streets and spent two hours in the pillory. During this time he continued his ranting against the state and, after having been told to keep silent by the Warden of the Fleet prison, his continued defiance earned him another beating and a term of incarceration in the Fleet prison. Here two attempts were made on his life but his daring actions earned him the status of hero in the early days of Parliament’s struggle. Again in 1639 Lilburne spoke against the teaching of Bishop Laud to the apprentices of London, causing a riot, and earning him another period in jail.

Lilburne was commissioned as a Parliamentarian Captain in Lord Brooke’s Regiment of Foote and fought at the battle of Edgehill (23rd October 1642). Brooke’s men were amongst those who led the rear guard action at Brentford, where Lilburne was captured and sent to Oxford for trial and execution. However, Parliament intervened and he was exchanged for important Royalist prisoners.

In 1643, Lilburne was assigned, by Cromwell, into Colonel Edward King’s Company of Foote with the rank of Major. At the Siege of Newark he was attacked by the Royalist cavalry and his men were routed. As a consequence, Edward King was blamed and, for information he had given, and his part in the action, Lilburne was given command of the Earl of Manchester’s Dragoone Company as a Lieutenant Colonel.