William Covell and the Troubles at Enfield in 1659: A Sequel of the Digger Movement

vVILLIAM COVELL AND THE TROUBLES AT ENFIELD IN 1659 A SEQUEL OF THE DIGGER MOVEMENT J. MAX PATRICK A great revolution always involves changes in land ownership. That , the Puritan Revolution was no exception is proved by the story of agrarian'riots in 1659 over property rights to Enfield Chase, a tract qf land in 'Middlesex about nine miles from London. The struggle was between a moneyed group of Intruders who had encroached upon or purchased part of the Chase and a group of Inhabitants who had traditional feudal property rights, including rights of common, over the area.1 Their quarrel repro- ,duced in miniature the conflict between moneyed,men attached to the new capitalism and men whose wealth consisted mainly of "feudal" rights and properties-the conflict which underlay the Revolution. It is also significant because it led to the collectivist theories of William Covell, just as the agrarian struggles of the Diggers helped' to provoke the communistic writings of Gerrard Winstanley. The purpose of this study is to tell the story of the troubles at Enfield and to examine Covell's pamphlets. Enclosure quarrels in Enfield were not new: they provoked a petition in 1575 and a riot in 1589.2 The immediate cause.of the struggle in 1659 was a scheme drawn up by Parliamentary commissioners as a result of surveys of the Chase conducted in 1650, 1656, 1657 and 1658.3 According to the firsf of these, the area consisted of 7,900 .acres worth £4,742 annually and possessed of deer and timber valued_at £14,350. The next two survey commissions were ordered b-y Parliament to decide who legally held rights of proprietorship and rights of common. Their activities meant that Inhabitants of Enfield who, "time out of mind," had "enjoyed common for all manner of commonable beasts without number and common of estovers and divers other great privileges and advantages," were put to considerable expense and loss of land.4 The scheme then drawn up allotted 3,399 acres for commons, 140 for roads and 4,360 for sale by the Protectorate. An IThe words "Intruders" and "Inhabitants," in this restricted and local sense, appear in the original documents, and are used 'throughout this article to designate the two main parties in the dispute. 2Lansdowne MS. 105, no. 7; Lansdowne MS. 59, fals. 30-1 (British Museum). 3G. H. Hods~n and E. Ford, A History of Enfield (Enfield, 1873),36; Calendar oj Slate Papers, Domestic, 1656-7, 169, 175, 591; C. S. P. Dom., 1657-8, 16; "A Relation of the Cruelties and Barbarous Murders Committed by some Footsoldiers and Others upon the Inhabitants of Enfield, Edmonton, etc." (London, 1659), reprinted in W. Robinson, The His/ory and Antiquities oj Enfield (London, 1823) I, 180 if.; A Plan Proposedfor the Division oj Enfield Chase (London, 1775); F. Russell, Enfield Chase Division (London, 1776). -lTo the Honourable Committee oj Parliament Appointedfor the . .. Hearing oj Grievances, the Humble Petition . .. on bellalj oj ... Inlzabitants oj Enfield • .. (London, 1659), single sheet. Spelling, capitalization and punctuation have been modernized in all quotations. 45 46 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Dutcry Df prDtests from the Inhabitants caused a new divisiDn in 1658, by which 546 acres were added to the common, leaving 3,814 to be sDld. The Inhabitants, already fDrced to. appeal to. public charity because of a disastrous fire,s were even more incensed by this divisiDn. They claimed that the survey failed to. account fDr two or three thDusand acres which were being quietly taken D'ver by Intruders; that perSDns pDssessing rights Df CDmmDn should have been allDtted 6,600 acres containing two-thirds of the wODd and the best soil instead Df 3,399 acres Df woodless, infer,tile land; and that the Intruders, not satisfied with obtaining two or three thDusand acres without payment; had stopped and turned rights Df way, had laid out impassable new ones, and were digging and despoiling even the small part of the waste which was allDtted to. the Inhabitants-an area -so small that it would not "maintain the tenth part Df their cattle as were maintained in the same Chase befDre the enclosure thereDf."G...