An uprising across the Midlands
The story of Captain Pouch is found in the Annales of England published in 1632:
About the middle of this month of May 1607, a great number of common persons suddenly assembled themselves in Northamptonshire, and then others of a like nature assembled themselves in Warwickshire, and some in Leicestershire, they violently cut and break down hedges, filled up ditches, and laid open all such enclosures of commons or other grounds as they found enclosed, which of ancient time had been open and employed to tillage, these tumultuous persons in Northamptonshire, Warwick and Leicestershire grew very strong, being in some places of men, women and children a thousand together, and at Hill Norton in Warwickshire there were three thousand, and at Cottesbich there assembled of men, women and children to the number of full five thousand.
The protesters said that it had been ‘credibly reported unto them by many that of late years there were three hundred and fifty towns decayed and depopulated, and that they supposed by this insurrection and casting down of enclosures to cause reformation.’
A gibbet was set up in the city of Leicester as a warning not to get involved. It was torn down by the people.
These riotous persons bent all their strength to level and lay open enclosures without exercising any manner of force or violence upon any man’s persons, goods or cattle, and wheresoever they came, they were generally relieved by the near inhabitants, who sent them not only carts laden with victual, but also good store of spades and shovels…
A piece of green cheese
The rebels appeared to be well organised, but the leadership was at first a mystery:
At first these foresaid multitudes assembled themselves without any particular head or guide, then started up a base fellow named John Reynoldes, whom they surnamed Captain Pouch because of a great leather pouch which he wore by his side. He said there was sufficient matter to defend them against all comers, but afterwards when he was apprehended his pouch was searched, and therein was only a piece of green cheese.
The landowners, in particular the Treshams, raised an army and with the encouragement of the king suppressed the rebellion. Forty peasants were killed in a battle at the village of Newton in Northamptonshire. The rebels were indicted with High Treason and several were executed, including Captain Pouch, who was ‘made exemplary.’
Diggers and Levellers
At Newton, a contemporary account by the Earl of Shrewsbury reported that the protesters called themselves ‘levellers’. Others described themselves as ‘diggers’. The diggers of Warwickshire issued a proclamation to all other diggers:
Wee, as members of the whole, doe feele the smarte of these incroaching Tirants, which would grind our flesh upon the whetstone of poverty, and make our loyall hearts to faint with breathing, so that they may dwell by themselves in the midst of theyr heards of fatt weathers [herds of fat wethers].
The terms levellers and diggers would appear again forty years later, in the time of the Civil War, resurrected by men such as John Lilburne and Gerrard Winstanley
Sources
John Stow and E Howes, Annales of England, London 1632, p 890.
Also see www.newtonrebels.org.uk
