Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	english_a	king_n	lord_n	1,488	5	3.5153	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96695	A letter to the Lord Fairfax, and his Councell of VVar, with divers questions to the lawyers, and ministers: proving it an undeniable equity, that the common people ought to dig, plow, plant and dwell upon the commons, without hiring them, or paying rent to any. Delivered to the Generall and the chief officers on Saturday June 9. / By Jerrard Winstanly, in the behalf of those who have begun to dig upon George-Hill in Surrey.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.; Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, Baron, 1612-1671.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3046; Thomason E560_1; ESTC R204419	8,484	12

A LETTER TO The Lord Fairfax AND His Councell of VVar WITH Divers Questions to the Lawyers and Ministers Proving it an undeniable Equity That the common People ought to dig plow plant and dwell upon the Commons without hiring them or paying Rent to any Delivered to the Generall and the chief Officers on Saturday June 9. By Jerrard Winstanly in the behalf of those who have begun to dig upon George-Hill in Surrey London Printed for Giles Calvert at the black Spread-Eagle at the West end of PAULS 1649. standing portion of livelihood to us and our children without that cheating intanglement of buying and selling and we shall not arrest one another And then what need have we of imprisoning whipping or hanging Laws to bring one another into bondage and we know that none of those that are subject to this righteous law dares arrest or inslave his brother for or about the objects of the earth because the earth is made by our Creator to be a common Treasury of livelihood to one equall with another without respect of persons But now if you that are elder brothers and that call the Inclosures your own land hedging out others if you will have Magistrates and Laws in this outward manner of the Nations we are not against it but freely without disturbance shall let you alone and if any of we Commoners or younger Brothers shall steal your corne or cattell or pull down your hedges let your laws take hold upon any of us that so offends But while we keep within the bounds of our Commons and none of us shall be found guilty of medling with your goods or inclosed proprieties unlesse the Spirit in you freely give it up your laws then shall not reach to us unlesse you will oppresse or shed the blood of the innocent and yet our corn and cattell shall not be locked up as though we would be propriators in the middle of the Nation no no we freely declare that our corn and cattell or what we have shall be freely laid open for the safety and preservation of the Nation and we as younger brothers living in love with you our elder brothers for we shall endeavour to do as we would be done unto that is to let every one injoy the benefit of his Creation to have food and rayment free by the labour of his hands from the earth And as for spirituall teachings we leave every man to stand and fall to his own Master if the power of covetousnesse be his Master or King that rules in his heart let him stand and fall to him if the power of love and righteousnesse be his Master or King that rules in his heart let him stand and fall to him let the bodies of men act love humility and righteousnesse one towards another and let the Spiri● of righteousnesse be the Teacher Ruler and Judge both in us and over us and by thus doing we shall honor our Father the Spirit that gave us our being And we shall honor our Mother the earth by labouring her in righteousnesse and leaving her free from oppression and bondage We shall then honor the higher powers of the left hand man which is our hearing seeing tasting smelling feeling and walk in the light of reason and righteousnesse that is the King and Judge that sits upon this five cornered Throne and we shall be strengthned by those five well springs of life of the right hand man which is understanding will affections joy and peace and so live like men in the light and power of the Son of righteousnesse within our selves feelingly What need then have we of any outward selfish confused Laws made to uphold the power of covetousnesse when as we have the righteous Law written in our hearts teaching us to walk purely in the Creation Sir The intent of our writing to you is not to request your protection though we have received an unchristian-like abuse from some of your souldiers for truly we dare not cast off the Lord and make choice of a man or men to rule us For the Creation hath smarted deeply for such a thing since Israel chose Saul to be their King therefore we acknowledge before you in plain English That we have chosen the Lord God Almighty to be our King and Protector Yet in regard you are our brethren as an English Tribe and for the present are owned to be the outward Governors Protectors and Saviours of this Land and whose hearts we question not but that you endeavour to advance the same King of righteousnesse with us therefore we are free to write to you and to open the sincerity of our hearts freely to you and to all the world And if after this report of ours either you or your Forces called souldiers or any that owns your Laws of propriety called freeholders do abuse or kill our persons we declare to you that we die doing our duty to our Creator by endeavouring from that power he hath put into our hearts to lift up his Creation out of bondage and you and they shall be left without excuse in the day of Judgement because you have been spoken to sufficiently And therefore our reason of writing to you is this in regard some of your foot souldiers of the Generalls Regiment under Captain Stravie that were quartered in our Town we bearing part therein as well as our neighbours giving them sufficient quarter so that there was no complaining did notwithstanding go up to George-hill where was onely one man and one boy of our company of the diggers And at their first coming divers of your souldiers before any word of provocation was spoken to them fell upon those two beating the boy and took away his coat off his back and some linnen and victualls that they had beating and wounding the man very dangerously and fired our house Which we count a strange and Heathenish practise that the souldierie should meddle with naked men peaceable men Countrymen that meddled not with the souldiers businesse nor offered any wrong to them in word or deed unlesse because we improve that victory which you have gotten in the name of the Commons over King Charles do offend the souldierie In doing whereof we rather expect protection from you then destruction But for your own particular we are assured of your moderation and friendship to us who have ever been your friends in times of straits and that you would not give Commission to strike us or fire or pull down our houses but you would prove us an enemy first Yet we do not write this that you should lay any punishment upon them for that we leave to your discretion only we desire in the request of brethren that you would send forth admonition to your souldiers not to abuse us hereafter unlesse they have a Commission from you and truly if our offences should prove so great you shall not need to send souldiers for us or to beat us for we shall freely come to you

upon a bare letter Therefore that the ignorant covetous free-holders and such of your ignorant souldiers that know not what freedom is may not abuse those that are true friends to Englands freedom and faithfull servants to the Creation we desire that our businesse may be taken notice of by you and the highest Councell the Parliament and if our work appear righteous to you as it does to us and wherein our souls have sweet peace in the midst of scandalls and abuses Then in the request of brethren we desire we may injoy our freedom according to the Law of contract between you and us That we that are younger brothers may live comfortably in the Land of our Nativity with you the elder brothers enjoying the benefit of our Creation which is food and rayment freely by our labours and that we may receive love and the protection of brethren from you seeing we have adventured estate and persons with you to settle the Land in peace and that we may not be abused by your Laws nor by your souldiers unlesse we break over into your inclosures as aforesaid and take away your proprieties before you are willing to deliver it up And if this you do we shall live in quietnesse and the Nation will be brought into peace while you that are the souldierie are a wall of fire round about the Nation to keep out a forraign enemy and are succourers of your brethren that live within the Land who indeavour to hold forth the Sun of righteousnesse in their actions to the glory of our Creator And you and the Parliament hereby will be faithfull in your Covenants Oaths and promises to us as we have been faithfull to you and them in paying taxes giving free-quarter and affording other assistance in the publike work whereby we that are the Common People are brought almost to a morsell of bread therefore we demand our bargain which is freedom with you in this Land of our Nativity But if you do sleight us and our cause then know we shall not strive with sword and speare but with spade and plow and such like instruments to make the barren and common Lands fruitful and we have and still shall commit our selves and our cause unto our righteous King whom we obey even the Prince of peace to be our Protector and unto whom you likewise professe much love by your preaching praying fastings and in whose name you have made all your Covenants Oaths and promises to us I say unto him we appeal who is and will be our righteous Judge who never yet failed those that waited upon him but ever did judge the cause of the oppressed righteously We desire that your Lawyers may consider these questions which we affirm to be truths and which gives good assurance by the Law of the Land that we that are the younger brothers or common people have a true right to dig plow up and dwell upon the Commons as we have declared 1. Whether William the Conqueror became not to be King of England by conquest turned the English out of their birth-rights burned divers townes whereof thirty towns were burned by him in Windsore Forrest by reason whereof all sorts of people suffered and compelled the conquered English for necessity of livelihood to be servants to him and his Norman souldiers 2. Whether King Charles was not successor to the Crown of England from William the Conqueror and whether all Laws that have been made in every Kings Reign did not confirm and strengthen the power of the Norman Conquest and so did and does still hold the Commons of England under slavery to the Kingly power his Gentry and Clergie 3. Whether Lords of Mannours were not the successors of the Colonells and chief Officers of William the Conqueror and held their Royalty to the Commons by Lease Grant and Patentee from the King and the power of the sword was and is the seale to their Title 4. Whether Lords of Mannours have not lost their Royalty to the common land since the common People of England as well as some of the Gentry have conquered King Charles and recovered themselves from under the Norman Conquest 5. Whether the Norman Conqueror took the land of England to himself out of the hands of a few men called a Parliament or from the whole body of the English People Surely he took freedom from every one and became the disposer both of inclosures and commons therefore every one upon the recovery of the conquest ought to return into freedom again vvithout respecting persons or els vvhat benefit shall the common people have that have suffered most in these vvars by the victory that is got over the King It had been better for the common people there had been no such conquest for they are impoverished in their estates by Free-quarter and Taxes and made vvorse to live then they vvere before But seeing they have paid Taxes and given Free-quarter according to their estates as much as the Gentry to theirs it is both reason and equity that they should have the freedom of the land for their livelihood vvhich is the benefit of the commons as the Gentry hath the benefit of their inclosures 6. Whether the freedom which the common people have got by casting out the Kingly power lie not herein principally to have the land of their nat●vity for their livelihood freed from intanglement of Lords Lords of Mannours and Landlords which are our task-masters As when the enemy conquered England he took the land for his own and called that his freedom even so seeing all sorts of people have given assistance to recover England from under the Norman yoke surely all sorts both Gentry in their inclosures Commonalty in their Commons ought to have their freedom not compelling one to work for wages for another 7. Whether any Lawes since the coming in of Kings have been made in the light of the righteous law of our creation respecting all alike or have not been grounded upon selfish principles in feare or flattery of their King to uphold freedom in the Gentry and Clergie and to hold the common people under bondage still and so respecting persons 8. Whether all Lawes that are not grounded upon equity and reason not giving a universal freedom to all but respecting persons ought not to be cut off with the Kings head we affirm they ought If all lawes be grounded upon equity and reason then the whole land of England is to be a common treasury to every one that is born in the land But if they be grounded upon selfish principles giving freedom to some laying burdens upon others such lawes are to be cut off with the Kings head or els the neglecters are Covenant Oaths and Promise-breakers and open hypocrites to the whole world 9. Whether every one without exception by the law of contract ought not to have liberty to enjoy the earth for his livelihood and to settle his dwelling in any part of the Commons of England without