Gerrard Winstanley: a reply

Abstract

Mr R. J. Dalton has recently provided evidence on Gerrard Winstanley's business career and family relationships.1 It is worthwhile to correct several inaccuracies before they become part of Winstanley lore, and to offer an assessment of the central evidence of Winstanley's suit in October i642 for a debt incurred by the merchant Mathew Backhouse during i64I. Mr Dalton asserts that Winstanley's distress as a London cloth trader was sufficient in i64I to drive him onto parochial charity, receiving one shilling and one penny from the St Olave, Old Jewry 'poor stock' in this year.2 This is simply not the case. The document cited is the churchwarden's account for the year beginning on I 9 July I640 where the churchwarden petitioned for allowance of sums uncollected for the poor rate.3 All ten individuals identified in this section, Winstanley included, were ratepayers.4 They were not in receipt of parochial charity. This evidence has already been assessed in print, and it has been shown that Winstanley's failure to make a onequarter year payment during i64I cannot be attributed to destitution.5 Indeed, i64I was a year of community development for this young Merchant Taylor: he began to contribute to the poor rate and initiated active involvement in the affairs of the vestry. In January i642 he was assessed for the first time for the local fifteenth; 63 properties in St Olave were assessed for this tax and none was in the possession of householders in receipt of charity.6 Furthermore, while Mr Dalton is undoubtedly correct to observe that Winstanley's financial position deteriorated between early i642 and mid i643, he incautiously argues that this can be seen in the declining rating of Winstanley's personal property for successivre fifteenths.' His rate for his residence and shop set at the second lowest level of three pence remained the same. The parish assessments for the fifteenth were traditional rates fixed to particular properties. Thus, when Winstanley came to the parish in i638 or early i639 he acquired the rating with the real estate, and he passed it on intact to the new holder, Anthony Lucas, when he left the parish around late i643 to reside in the vicinity of Cobham, Surrey.8 The discovery of Winstanley's petition, dated 29 October i642, alleging that he had lost during i64I f274. is. 6d. to Backhouse is undoubtedly important, although not necessarily for the reasons advanced by Mr Dalton. The document is the only known evidence in this judicial dispute. Three assumptions are therefore contained in Mr Dalton's account: Winstanley's petition accurately states the objective facts of the