The following article was taken from a booklet called the ‘Kingsmead Directory’, published in 2002 and written by Rose Pullum. There have been some minor edits, updates and alterations to make it suitable for a webpage and to bring information up to date made by Vicky Glover-Ward. Any errors should be deemed those of the editor
Possibly the most significant event to happen in our locality took place over 350 years ago and is commemorated in the names of Cromwell Road, Fairfax Road and Cockbush Avenue. In 1647, the first English Civil War ended with the defeat of Royalist forces (loyal to Charles I) at Oxford in June 1647. However, by November of that year there was still no clear picture of how Parliament would represent the interests of the English people and especially those of the soldiers.
To defeat the King, Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell MP, (second in command to General Thomas Fairfax), had joined together several anti-royalist groups to form the New Model Army. Having secured this victory, however, the various financial and political grievances within the Parliamentary troops threatened the position of both Fairfax and Cromwell. The two commanders decided to quell any rebellion by rallying the troops loyal to their ideas alongside the Meads on Monday 15th November 1647. The Cockbush Field or Corkbush Field Mutiny (also known as the Ware Mutiny) had great significance for the outcome of the Civil War and the career of Oliver Cromwell.
The site was on the slopes of Cockbush (or Corkbush) field, a large area of land on both sides of what is now Ware Road stretching for half a mile from the junction with Stanstead Road almost as far as the A 10 flyover. The west and north boundary of Cockbush Field follow the line of Cromwell Road allotments. Cockbush Avenue would have been about in the middle of the field.
It was an excellent meeting point offering good access for feeding the regiments' horses on the Meads, fresh water supplies from the New River and drier high ground for the encamped troops. It seems no coincidence that even today fragments of clay pipe are turned up on the Cromwell Road Allotments and you can easily picture Roundhead soldiers smoking tobacco as they await the rendezvous with their Commander in Chief.
The story makes exciting reading, with Oliver Cromwell and Fairfax having just escaped murder or capture by conspirators in Hertford overnight. They were then to meet the assembled troops, seven regiments which they expected to support them, and two regiments of dissidents which arrived later.
In the previous months of conflict, General Fairfax had been very conscious of the arrears of pay due to his men, of the burden that accommodating them free of charge, (free quarter) had placed on local communities, and that there was little provision for the widows and orphans left when soldiers fell in battle. Whatever political ideals or electoral rights the troops might have hoped for, their most pressing need right then was for their money.
Within the ranks, agents of an important anti-royalist group known as the 'Levellers' had been circulating pamphlets to press for their egalitarian aims before the arrival of General Fairfax and Cromwell. The Levellers also had powerful support amongst the civilian population in and around London, with John Lilburne being one of the foremost activists. Although officially 'imprisoned' in the Tower of London at that time, he was frequently allowed out and is believed to have been at an inn at Ware the evening before the rally on 15th November 1647. The Levellers believed that titles and privilege should be abolished and votes given to most of the male population (excluding beggars and servants). These ideas (with the addition of women's suffrage and the inclusion of 'servants') seem natural to us, but they were very advanced for the 17th century.
Fairfax and Cromwell feared that they, as landowners, and the growing middle class of businessmen and professionals who supported them, would suffer loss if the vote were given to men without property. They considered that the majority of an electorate without property would vote for candidates of similar class who might then confiscate private lands and assets. The defeat of monarchy might then have resulted in something nearer communism than democracy!
When the General arrived to review the troops, many of the soldiers were wearing the Levellers papers in their hats with the slogan 'England's Freedom and soldiers' Rights'. At the same time Major Thomas Scott, a Member of Parliament, pressed them to support the 'Agreement of the People', a draft for a new constitution for England devised by the Levellers. However, Fairfax had the means to defuse their arguments.
Fairfax's 'trump card' was another document recently agreed with the Army Council. This was the 'Remonstrance to the Soldiers', which seemed to agree to the men's demands for pay, arrears, provision for widows and orphans etc, if they in tum subscribed to military discipline. It appears that the soldiers of the first seven regiments accepted this very willingly and removed the papers from their hats. Several of the pamphlet distributors were arrested as was Scott. However, as an MP, Scott was sent to London to be judged by Parliament. He was later investigated and cleared by his fellow MPs, so getting off 'Scott free'.
Fairfax then turned to the horse regiment of Colonel Thomas Harrison which had not been invited to attend. Harrison himself was not there, but he was sympathetic to the Levellers demands and his men wore the offending papers in their hats. Without Harrison, and realising that the other troops present would not support them, this regiment also removed the pamphlets and agreed to obey Fairfax.
It was then that the second dissident regiment arrived, in a considerably more aggressive state. This was Robert Lilbume's foot regiment led by Captain Lieutenant Bray, the most senior officer left with them in Robert Lilburne's absence. (Robert Lilburne was a career soldier who dissociated himself from the activities of his Leveller brother John). The regiment had been marching all day from St Albans where some had mutinied. They were commanded to remove the papers which they wore in their hats and refused to do so. Bray was promptly arrested. Folklore has it that then Cromwell, in an explosion of rage, drew his pistol and charged into the mutineers, so startling them that they swiftly removed the offending papers and begged for mercy.
However, the drama did not end there as Fairfax, determined to be seen to punish the act of mutiny, asked for the ringleaders of the disloyal soldiers to be identified.(A third Lilburne brother, the officer Henry Lilburne, pointed out some of the mutineers.) According to Alan Thomsen in his book, The Ware Mutiny 1647, 'eleven mutineers were seized from the ranks, subjected to court-martial, found guilty of mutiny and sentenced to death. However Fairfax decided to commute the sentence on all but three. The three remaining had to cast lots for their lives. Richard Arnold lost and was then shot by the other two in front of his fellow soldiers'.
Who can say if the course of British history could have been changed by a less prompt and uncompromising approach?
The family name of Lilburne, so prominent in this story is now commemorated as Lilbourne Drive in the development of new homes at Hartham Place at the top of Gallows Hill. Other important Levellers, the civilian John Wild man, and Thomas Rainsborough, are acknowledged in the Names of Wildman Court and Rainsborough Court on the same site.
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