SOURCE: "Gerrard Winstanley and the Digger Movement in Walton and Cobham," The Historical Journal, Vol, 37, No. 4, December, 1994, pp. 775-802.

In the following essay, Gurney refers to Winstanley's pamphlets and other contemporary documents to discuss the levels of general societal acceptance received by the Digger communities Winstanley established in Surrey.

Although much has been written in recent years about the life of Gerrard Winstanley,¹ our knowledge of those who joined him in the Digger venture of 1649-50 remains extremely limited. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the Digger movement in recent studies of popular protest, and there has been a tendency to emphasize the Diggers' lack of popular appeal and their apparent failure to gain the support of the local tenantry. In the absence of detailed studies of the Surrey Diggers and their opponents, it has proved difficult to test the validity of the widely-held view that Winstanley...