Associated Digger Material, 1650

This April 1650 letter was taken at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, from men apprehended while travelling to encourage support for the Digger work at Cobham.

This public text follows Lewis H. Berens' public-domain transcription in The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth (1906), which quotes the item from A Perfect Diurnal, April 1-8, 1650.

The True Copy of a Letter Taken at Wellingborough

April 4 (Thursday). -- The true Copy of a Letter taken at
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with some men that
were there apprehended for going about to incite people
to Digging, and under such pretence gathered money of
the well-affected for their assistance.

These are to certify all that are Friends to Universal
Freedom, and that look upon the Digging and Planting of the
Commons to be the first springing up of Freedom: To make
the Earth a Common Treasury that everyone may enjoy food
and raiment freely by his labour upon the Earth, without
paying Rents or Homage to any Fellow-creature of his own
kind; that everyone may be delivered from the Tyranny of
the Conquering Power, and to rise up out of that Bondage to
enjoy the benefit of his Creation: This, I say, is to certify
all such that those Men that have begun to lay the First
Stone in the Foundation of this Freedom (by digging upon
Georges Hill on the Common called Little Heath in Cobham)
in regard of the great opposition hitherto from the Enemy, by
reason whereof they lost the last Summer's work, yet, through
inward faithfulness to advance Freedom, they keep the field
still, ... but in regard to poverty their work is like to flag
and drop: Therefore if the hearts of any be stirred up to drop
anything into this Treasury, to buy victuals to keep the men
alive, and to buy Corn to cast into the ground, it will keep
alive the Spirit of Public Freedom to the whole Land, which
otherwise is ready to die again for want of help. And if you
hear hereafter that there was a people appeared to stand up
to advance Public Freedom, and struggled with the Opposing
Power of the Land, for that they begin to let them alone, and
yet these men and their public work were crushed, because
they wanted assistance of food and corn to keep them alive:
I say, if you hear this, it will be trouble to you when it is too
late, that you had monies in your hand, and would not part
with any of it to purchase Freedom, therefore you deservedly
groan under Tyranny, and no Saviour appears. But let your
Reason weigh the excellency of this work, and I am sure you
will cast in something.

And because there were some treacherous persons drew
up a note and subscribed our names to it, and by that moved
some friends to give money to this work of ours, when as we
know of no such note, nor subscribed our names to any, nor
ever received any money from such collection. Therefore
to prevent such a cheat, I have mentioned a word or two in
the end of a printed book against that treachery, that neither
we nor our friends may be cheated. And I desire if any be
willing to communicate of their substance unto our work, that
they would make a collection among themselves, and send that
money to Cobham to the Diggers' own hands, by some trusty
friend of your own, and so neither you nor we shall be
cheated.

The Bearers hereof, Thomas Haydon and Adam Knight,
can relate by word of mouth more largely the condition of the
Diggers and their work, and so we leave this to you to do as
you are moved.

Jacob Heard, Jo. South junior, Henry Barton, Tho. Barnard,
Tho. Adams, Will Hitchcocke, Anthony Wren, Robert Draper,
William Smith, Robert Coster, Gerrard Winstanley, Jo. South,
Tho. Heydon, Jo. Palmer, Tho. South, Henry Handcocke, Jo.
Batt, Dan Ireland, Jo. Hayman, Robert Sawyer, Tho. Starre,
Tho. Edcer, besides their wives and families, and many more
if there were food for them.

A Copy of Their Travels

A Copy of their Travels, that was taken with the four men
at Wellingborow.

Out of Buckinghamshire into Surrey; from Surrey to
Middlesex, from thence to Hartfordshire, to Bedfordshire,
again to Buckinghamshire, so to Berkshire, and then to Surrey,
thence to Middlesex, and so to Hartfordshire, and to Bedfordshire,
thence into Huntingdonshire, from thence to Bedfordshire,
and so into Northamptonshire, and there they were
apprehended.

They visited these towns to promote the business:
Colebrook, Hanworth, Hounslow, Harrowhill, Watford,
Redburn, Dunstable, Barton, Amersley, Bedford, Kempson,
North Crawley, Cranfield, Newport, Stony Stratford, Winslow,
Wendover, Wickham, Windsor, Cobham, London, Whetston,
Mine, Wellin, Dunton, Putney, Royston, St. Needs, Godmanchester,
Wetne, Stanton, Warbays, Kimolton, from Kimolton
to Wellingborrow.

Colophon

This edition follows Lewis H. Berens' public-domain transcription in The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth (1906). Berens introduces the excerpt as drawn from A Perfect Diurnal, April 1-8, 1650, and gives the King's Pamphlets / British Museum press mark E. 534.

The identified original-newsbook route is A Perfect Diurnall of some Passages and Proceedings Of, and in relation to the Armies in England and Ireland, no. 17, April 1-8, 1650, Thomason Tracts 83:E.534[25], pp. 179-180. This public edition preserves Berens' wording, capitalization, paragraphing, signatory list, travel list, and ellipsis in they keep the field still, ... but in regard to poverty.

This item is included as associated Digger material. It is signed by Gerrard Winstanley and others, but it is not presented here as a single-author Winstanley text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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