Gerrard Winstanley

Gerrard Winstanley
Gerrard Winstanley
Born	Parish of Wigan, Lancashire, England
Baptised	19 October 1609
Died	10 September 1676 (aged 66)
Movement	True Levellers
Spouse	; Susan King (m. 1640, died) ; Elizabeth Stanley (m. 1664) ;
Children	3

Gerrard Winstanley (baptised 19 October 1609 – 10 September 1676)^[1] was an English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Winstanley was the leader and one of the founders of the English group known as the True Levellers or Diggers. The group occupied formerly common land that had been privatised by enclosures and dug them over, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches, to plant crops. "True Levellers" was the name they used to describe themselves, whereas the term "Diggers" was coined by contemporaries.

^ Davis, J. C.; Alsop, J. D. "Winstanley, Gerrard (bap. 1609, d. 1676), author and Digger". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29755. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[1] Davis, J. C.; Alsop, J. D. "Winstanley, Gerrard (bap. 1609, d. 1676), author and Digger". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29755. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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