SOURCE: "The True Levellers" in The Levellers and the English Revolution, edited by Christopher Hill, The Cresset Press, 1961, pp. 657-70.

In the following essay, Brailsford traces possible influences on Winstanley's thought, discussing his religious ideas and his political philosophy.

On Sunday, I April, 1649, a band of a dozen landless men with their families camped on St George's Hill, near Walton-on-Thames, and proceeded to dig and manure the common.' Their leader, William Everard, had served in the New Model Army, until his radicalism caused him to be cashiered: but this was to be for him and his comrades a peaceful, albeit revolutionary act. The 'True Levellers', as they called themselves, had lost their faith alike in the men of property who dominated the Long Parliament, and in the Grandees who commanded the Army. But with unflagging courage they meant with their spades to open yet another campaign for...