John Lilburne ( 1614 – 29 August 1657 ), also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650.

John's elder brother Robert Lilburne also later became active in the Parliamentary cause, but seems not to have shared John's Leveller beliefs.

Whereas Coke, John Pym, Lucy Hutchinson and Sir Henry Vane saw Magna Carta rights as being primarily those of the propertied classes, during the prolonged 17th-century constitutional crisis in England and Scotland, the arguments were also taken up in a more radical way by the likes of Francis Trigge, John Hare, John Lilburne, John Warr and Gerrard Winstanley of the radical Diggers even calling for an end to primogeniture and for the cultivation of the soil in common.

The suburb is also served by Transperth buses along Beach Road, Glengarry and Poynter Drives, Davallia, Lilburne and Readshaw Roads, and Marmion Avenue ( 423, 441, 442, 443, 444, 452 ).

On 18 April 1638 Lilburne was flogged with a three-thonged whip on his bare back, as he was dragged by his hands tied to the rear of an ox cart from Fleet Prison to the pillory at Westminster.

Lilburne, who had exerted himself on behalf of Morris as far back as 1648, now actively took up his cause again.

Those who disagreed with expedient political compromises made during the period of the Commonwealth, went back to the Army's own declarations during the wars, to republican pamphlets like those produced by John Lilburne, Marchamont Needham and John Milton.

Lilburne was instrumental in the writing of two more editions of this famous document.

Lt-Colonel John Lilburne has a regiment in his honour in The Sealed Knot ( reenactment ) society.

In July 1646, Lilburne was imprisoned again, this time in the Tower of London, for denouncing his former army commander the Earl of Manchester as a Royalist sympathiser, because he had protected an officer who had been charged with treason.

Although Walwyn and Overton were released from the Tower, and Lilburne was tried and acquitted, the Leveller cause had effectively been crushed.

Lilburne argued that he had been fighting for this Liberty among others.

Firth opined that Lilburne had gained a great reputation for courage and seems to have been a good officer, but his military career was unlucky.

The Letanie was printed by a Dutch press for John Lilburne, who had been brought to the Gatehouse in 1636 by the clothier Thomas Hewson and minister Edmund Rosier.

On 21 January 1659 Elizabeth Lilburne petitioned Richard Cromwell for the discharge of the fine imposed on her husband by the act of 30 Jan. 1652, and her request was granted.

These ranged from Royalists who wished to place King Charles II on the throne, to men like Oliver Cromwell, who wished to govern with a Parliament voted in by an electorate determined by property ownership, similar to that enfranchised before the civil war, to the Levellers, influenced by the writings of John Lilburne, who wanted parliamentary government based on an electorate constituted of every head of household ( normally though not necessarily male as was acknowledged in the Putney Debates ), through to other groups with smaller followings like the Fifth Monarchists, Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, the Ranters, and the Society of Friends ( Quakers ).

Lilburne entirely routed a Lancashire detachment of the enemy on their way to join the main Royalist army at the Battle of Wigan Lane on 25 August and as affairs turned out Cromwell merely shifted the area of his concentration two marches to the south-west, to Evesham.

Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge, 20 miles ( 32 km ) north of Worcester and on the enemy's line of retreat.

In April 1645, Lilburne resigned from the Army, because he refused to sign the Presbyterian Solemn League and Covenant, on the grounds that the covenant deprived those who might swear it of freedom of religion, namely members of the parliamentary army.

A second time ( 18 June 1645 ) Prynne caused Lilburne to be brought before the same committee, on a charge of publishing unlicensed pamphlets, but he was again dismissed unpunished.

When Hugh Peters visited John Lilburne in the Tower on 25 May 1649, Lilburne told him that he would rather have had seven years under the late king's rule than one under the present regime, and that in his opinion if the current regime remained as tyrannical as it was, then people would be prepared to fight for " Prince Charles ".

As this source had proved insufficient, Lilburne, by the aid of Marten and Cromwell, obtained another ordinance ( 30 July 1650 ), charging the remainder of the sum on confiscated chapter-lands, and thus became owner of some of the lands of the Durham chapter.

In 1649, Lilburne had published a violent attack on Hesilrige, whom be accused of obstructing the payment of the money granted him by the parliamentary ordinance of 28 December 1648.

John Lilburne intervened with a violent attack on Hesilrige and the committee, terming them " unjust and unworthy men, fit to be spewed out of all human society, and deserving worse than to be hanged ".

He next joined with Josiah Primat — the person from whom George Lilburne asserted that he had bought the collieries — and presented to parliament, on 23 December 1651, a petition repeating ; and specifying the charges against Hesilrige.

In addition John Lilburne was sentenced to be banished for life, and an Act of Parliament for that purpose was passed on 30 January 1652.

Lilburne spent his exile in the Netherlands at Bruges and elsewhere, where he published a vindication of himself, and an attack on the government.

When Cromwell was convinced that Lilburne really intended to live peaceably, he released him on parole from prison, and seems to have continued till his death the pension of 40s.

Not all those on the parliamentarian side were happy with this arrangement and some, like John Lilburne, chose to leave the parliamentary armies rather than take the oath prescribed in the Act enforcing the Solemn League and Covenant.

In 1653, Lilburne was on trial again and asked the jury to acquit him if it found the death penalty " unconscionably severe " in proportion to the crime he committed.

He controverted and denounced John Lilburne, and called on Parliament to crush the sectaries.

During the English Civil War many of the more radical Parliamentarians, such as John Lilburne and the Levellers, based their belief in universal suffrage and proto-socialism on their reading of the Bible.

Royalists wished to place King Charles II on the throne ; men like Oliver Cromwell wished to govern with a plutocratic Parliament voted in by an electorate based on property, similar to that which was enfranchised before the civil war ; agitators called Levellers, influenced by the writings of John Lilburne, wanted parliamentary government based on an electorate of every male head of a household ; Fifth Monarchy Men advocated a theocracy ; and the Diggers, led by Gerrard Winstanley, advocated a more radical solution.

Some Levellers, like Lilburne, argued that the English Common law, particularly Magna Carta, were the foundation of English rights and liberties, but others, like William Walwyn, compared Magna Carta to a ' mess of potage '.

* August 29 – John Lilburne, English dissenter ( b. c. 1614 )

Rushworth was a contemporary of John Lilburne whose writings had a profound impact on the history of the English Civil Wars of the 17th century.

At the outbreak of the First English Civil War Lilburne joined the Roundheads.

During the Second English Civil War, Lilburne joined Cromwell and Lambert in the defeat of the Engagers at the Battle of Preston.

During the Third English Civil War he fought under Oliver Cromwell during his Scottish campaign, and when the Scottish army invaded England Lilburne defeated English Royalists, under the command of the Earl of Derby, at the Battle of Wigan Lane on 25 August 1651.

With the death of Oliver Cromwell, Lilburne did not support Richard Cromwell but instead supported the restoration of the Rump Parliament and the reinstatement of the English Commonwealth.

" Freeborn " is a term associated with political agitator John Lilburne ( 1614 – 1657 ), a member of the Levellers, a 17th-century English political party.

The Battle of Wigan Lane was fought on 25 August 1651 during the Third English Civil War, between Royalists under the command of the Earl of Derby and elements of the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne.