Diggers - Definition and Overview

For other meanings see Diggers (disambiguation) and Levellers (disambiguation)

The Diggers were a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 which called for a total destruction of the existing social order and replacement with a communistic and agrarian lifestyle based around the precepts of Christian Nationalism, wishing to rid England of what they called the Norman Yoke. They called themselves the True Levellers to distinguish themselves from The Levellers. Opponents insultingly called them the Diggers because they advocated an agrarian return to the land.

1649 was a year of great social unrest in England. The Parliamentary victors of The First English Civil War after failing to negotiate a constitutional settlement with the defeated King Charles I and faced with his duplicity, reluctantly tried and executed him. Government through the King's Privy Council was replaced with a new body called Council of State, which due to fundamental disagreements within a weakened Parliament, was dominated by the army. Many people were active in politics, suggesting alternative forms of government to replace the old order. These ranged from Royalists who wished to place King Charles II on the throne; through men like Oliver Cromwell who wished govern through Parliament with a an electorate based on property similar to that which had existed before the war; and the Levellers who wanted parliamentary government based on an electorate of every male head of a household; to those like Winstanley who advocated a more radical solution.

The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on St. George's Hill near Cobham, Surrey, at a time when food prices reached an all-time high. Sanders reported they had invited "all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes." Their intentions were to pull down all enclosures and cause the local populace to come and work with them. They claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. "It is feared they have some design in hand." In the same month the diggers issued their most famous pamphlet and manifesto called "The True Levellers Standard Advanced"¹.

At the behest of the local land owners, the commander of the New Model Army Sir Thomas Fairfax duly arrived with his troops, and interviewed Winstanley and another prominent member of the True Levellers, William Everard. Having concluded that they were doing no harm, he advised the local land owners to use the courts.

Everard was astute enough to see which way the wind was blowing and soon left the group. Winstanley, however, true to his convictions remained and complained about the treatment which they received. The harassment from the lord of the manor, Francis Drake, was both deliberate and systematic, he organised gangs to attack the Diggers which included numerous beatings and an arsonous attack on one of the communal houses. Following a court case, in which the Diggers were forbidden to speak in their own defence, they were found guilty of being Ranters who were sexual revolutionaries. Having lost the court case, if they had not left the land, then the army could have been used to enforce the law and evict them, so they abandoned St George's Hill in August 1649, much to the relief of the local freeholders.

Some of the evicted Diggers moved a short distance to Little Heath. Eleven acres were cultivated, six houses built, winter crops harvested, and several pamphlets were published. After initially expressing some sympathy for them, the local lord of the manor of Cobham, Parson John Platt, became their chief enemy. He used his power to stop local people helping them and he organised attacks on the Diggers and their property. By April 1650 Platt and other local land owners succeeded in driving the Diggers from Little Heath.

There was another community of Diggers close to Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. Captain William Thompson the leader of the "Banbury mutineers" was killed in a skirmish, close to the community by soldiers loyal to Cromwell in May 1649. In 1650 the community published a declaration which started:

"A Declaration by the Diggers of Wellingborough - 1650. A Declaration of the Grounds and Reasons why we the Poor Inhabitants of the Town of Wellingborrow, in the County of Northampton, have begun and give consent to dig up, manure and sow Corn upon the Common, and waste ground, called Bareshanke belonging to the Inhabitants of Wellinborrow, by those that have Subscribed and hundreds more that give Consent...."².

Subsequent revival of the term

The name 'Diggers' was revived in San Francisco for a radical guerilla theater group, offering street theater, information and free food during the hippie movement associated with the Haight-Ashbury, 1965–68.

In the 1974 British General Election one candidate ran as a Digger in Cambridge.

In 1975 Leon Rosselson published a song about the Diggers, The World Turned Upside-Down. Billy Bragg covered the song on his 1987 album Back To Basics.

Also in 1975, Kevin Brownlow directed the film Winstanley, a fictionalized portrait of the Diggers based on David Caute's novel Comrade Jacob.

ANZAC troops in World War I were known as Diggers, probably due to nature of trench warfare.

References

1. The True Levellers Standard A D V A N C E D  (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/digger.html)
2. A Declaration by the Diggers of Wellingborough - 1650 (http://www.rogerlovejoy.co.uk/philosophy/diggers/diggers3.htm)

External links

• English Diggers (http://www.diggers.org/english_diggers.htm)
• Surrey Diggers Trail (http://www.diggerstrail.co.uk/the-diggers.cfm)