Amon Wilbee and Leveller Beginnings, 1647–8

Abstract

Abstract Amon Wilbee was the authorial pseudonym for four tracts critical of the Long Parliament that appeared between July 1647 and May 1648. Wilbee depicted leading MPs as corrupt, self-interested, and insensitive to the needs of the people. These tracts reveal much about the origins of the Levellers; but, because of their uncertain authorship, they have received little attention from civil war historians. This essay provides the first systematic examination of their authorship, publishing contexts, and relevance to scholarly interpretation of the Levellers. Extensive textual comparisons suggest that William Walwyn was probably the principal drafter of the Amon Wilbee tracts; Richard Overton and Edward Sexby are also identified as likely contributors. Amon Wilbee’s political posture evolved from anti-Presbyterianism in July 1647 to a broader disillusionment with leading Independents and the Long Parliament itself by November 1647. Wilbee’s polemical trajectory is consistent with recent scholarly assertions that the Levellers did not fully emerge as a detached political faction until the autumn of 1647. The authorship and print history of these publications point to a convergence of civilian and army radicals in the emergence of the Levellers at that time. As political propaganda, the Wilbee tracts sought to influence and mobilise a radical Independent community of discourse in London, nearby counties, and the New Model Army from which the initial Leveller following was drawn. The essay also bears significantly on interpretations of the Leveller authors’ attitudes towards monarchy and republicanism and helps explain why the Levellers attracted ordinary people.