Levellers: John Lilburne, William Eyre, John Wildman, Putney Debates, Grandee, Thomas Rawton, William Walwyn, Edward Sexby, Ex officio oath, Elizabeth Lilburne, William Rainborowe, Corkbush Field mutiny, Miles Sindercombe, Banbury mutiny

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 23. Chapters: John Lilburne, William Eyre, John Wildman, Putney Debates, Grandee, Thomas Rawton, William Walwyn, Edward Sexby, Ex officio oath, Elizabeth Lilburne, William Rainborowe, Corkbush Field mutiny, Miles Sindercombe, Banbury mutiny, Thomas Rainsborough, Bishopsgate mutiny, Richard Overton, Robert Lockyer, Katherine Chidley. Excerpt: John Lilburne (1614 ¿ 29 August 1657), also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. In his early life he was a Puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a Quaker. His works have been cited in opinions by the United States Supreme Court. John Lilburne was the son of Richard Lilburne, a landowner of estates at Thickney Puncharden and elsewhere in County Durham. He was probably born in Sunderland but the exact date of his birth is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613, 1614, or 1615. His father Richard Lilburne was the last man in England to insist that he should be allowed to settle a legal dispute with a trial by battle John's elder brother Robert Lilburne also later became active in the Parliamentary cause, but seems not to have shared John's Leveller beliefs. By his own account Lilburne received the first ten years' of his education in Newcastle, almost certainly at the Royal Free Grammar School. He also had some schooling in Bishop Auckland. In the 1630s he was apprenticed to John Hewson, who introduced him to the Puritan physician John Bastwick, an active pamphleteer against Episcopacy who was persecuted by Archbishop William Laud. Lilbune's connection with Bastwick, whose "Litany" he had a hand in printing, obliged him to flee to Holland. On his return from Holland, Lilburne was arrested (11 December 1637) for printing and circulating unlicensed books, more especially William Prynne's "News from Ipswich", that were not licensed by The Stationers' Company (known after 1937 as the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers). At that time all printing presses were licensed as well as the publications that were produced on those presses. Lilburne was arrested upon information by an informer