Burford and the Levellers

Graffito carved on the church fonr by Anthony Sedley, one of the imprisoned Levellers

By May 1649 the Parliamentarians had won the Civil War and Charles I had been executed, but political and religious debate continued. Most radical were the Levellers, a loose group of agitators advocating free speech, complete religious freedom, and the right of every free man to vote. They were particularly strong in Cromwell’s army, where discontent was fuelled by mounting pay arrears, and by rumours that a regiment would be sent to Ireland without pay.

As the pay issue dragged on three regiments in different places mutinied and set out to join together, quartering, by chance, at Burford on Sunday 13 May. Meanwhile Cromwell and Lord Fairfax had set out from Andover to intercept the rebels. Arriving at Burford in the middle of the night, the two commanders stormed the town. Many mutineers fled, a few tried to hold out in the Crown on High Street (where one man was killed), and the remainder, about 340 in total, were captured and imprisoned in the church. Four were condemned to death, and on Thursday 17th were brought from the church, one at a time, to be shot against the churchyard wall, as the remaining prisoners watched from the church leads. The parish register notes the burial of three of them; the fourth received a last-minute reprieve, and was forced to preach to his fellows and publish a pamphlet condemning the mutiny. Cromwell and his men departed, leaving the churchwardens to repair the leads of the roof, and to pay for the church to be cleansed.

The Levellers’ radical agenda had far-reaching influence, still celebrated by those on the political Left. Since 1975 the mutineers have been commemorated at Burford Levellers Day, held on the Saturday nearest the day of the executions and marked by a procession through the town and topical speeches in the church.