[562] The Humble Petition of thousands well affected persons inhabiting the city of London, Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, Hamlets, and places adjacent. In Bodleian Pamphlets, The Leveller’s Petition, c. 15, 3 Linc. See also Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 139–226.
[563] Camden Society, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. pp. 215–217. Winstanley’s letter to Lord Fairfax and the Council of War begins: “That whereas we have begun to dig upon the Commons for livelihood, and have declared unto your excellency and the whole world our reasons, which are four. First, from the righteous law of creation that gives the earth freely to one as well as another, without respect of persons"; also Gooch, op. cit. The Owenite note may be more than a mere chance. Owen himself stated ("New View of Society"): “Any merit due for the discovery calculated to effect more substantial and permanent benefit to mankind than any ever yet contemplated by the human mind belongs exclusively to John Bellers.” Bellers published his College of Industry in 1696, and may easily have been acquainted with the story of the Diggers' agitation.
[564] Russell, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, p. 8.
[565] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 201, Examination of John Halom of Calkehill, yeoman.
[566] Ibid., vol. xi., 1080.
[567] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xi., 975.
[568] Ibid., vol. xii., Part I., 163.
[569] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 163. The Proclamation of the Commons; see also ibid., 138, the manifesto which says, “Ye shall have captains just and true, and not be stayed by the gentry in no wise.”
[570] Russell, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, Introduction, p. 8. The advice of John Walker of Griston.
[571] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Star Chamber, and Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696.