Levellers - Origin of Name

Origin of Name

The term 'leveller' had been used in 17th-century England as a term of abuse for rural rebels. In the Midland Revolt of 1607, the name was used to refer to those who 'levelled' hedges in enclosure riots.

As a political movement, the term first referred to a faction of New Model Army Agitators and their London supporters who were allegedly plotting to assassinate the king. But the term was gradually attached to John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn and their 'faction'. Books published in 1647–1648 often reflect this terminological uncertainty. The public 'identification' was largely due to the aspersions by Marchamont Needham, the author of the newspaper Mercurius Pragmaticus. Lilburne, John Wildman and Richard Baxter later thought that Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton had applied the term to Lilburne's group during the Putney Debates of late 1647. Lilburne considered the term pejorative and called his supporters "Levellers so-called" and preferred "Agitators". The term suggested that the "Levellers" aimed to bring all down to the lowest common level. The leaders vehemently denied the charge of "levelling", but adopted the name because it was how they were known to the majority of people. After their arrest and imprisonment in 1649, four of the 'Leveller' leaders — Walwyn, Overton, Lilburne and Thomas Prince — signed a manifesto in which they called themselves Levellers.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first written use of the term for a political movement to 1644, but the source cited there, Marchamont Needham's pamphlet The Case for the Commonwealth of England Stated, dates from 1650. The term was used in a letter of 1 November 1647, and the 19th century historian S. R. Gardiner suggested that it existed as a nickname before this date. Blair Worden, the most recent historian to publish on the subject, concluded that the 1 November letter was the first recorded use of the term. The letter referred to extremists among the Army agitators: "They have given themselves a new name, viz. Levellers, for they intend to sett all things straight, and rayse a parity and community in the kingdom". Worden shows that the term first appeared in print in a book by Charles I called His Majesties Most Gracious Declaration. This tract was a printing of a letter that had been read in the House of Lords on 11 November 1647. Although George Thomason did not date this tract, the last date internal to the document was Saturday 13 November 1647, suggesting a publication date of 15 November 1647.