LIL'BURNE, JOHN, 1618-1657; a Protestant agitator of England. Imbibing opinions in opposition to the English church, at the age of 18 he went to Holland to procure the printing of a pamphlet against the bishops. This lie aided to circulate secretly, was exposed to the authorities, tried in the court of the star-chamber, condemned in Feb., 1637, to receive 500 lashes, to be pilloried and confined in prison, fined £500, and required to give security for good behavior. His bold courage before the judges gave him the sobriquet of " Freeborn John." Given his liberty in 1640 he placed himself at the. head of his sympathizers and demanded that lord Stratford should be arraigned. He was again arrested and taken before the honse of lords; but such was the pressure of public opinion in his favor that the parliatnent (" long parliament ") released him, and subsequently declared his punishment to have been illegal, barbarous, and tyrannical ; and recompensed him for his imprisonment and injuries by a payment to him of £3,000. He joined the army of the parliament against Charles I., was taken prisoner, and would have been hung, had not the parliament's general, the duke of Essex, threatened to hang royalist prisoners in retaliation. He soon became dissatisfied with the Presbyterian leaders, and published charges and denunciations even against Cromwell. The latter
procured his trial before a commission, by whom he was a.cquitted. Emboldened by this, he began a violent agitation against Cromwell, read in public a pa-mphlet entitled, England's New Chains, and in consequence was committed to the Tower. Thence he poured out political pamphlets which gave him great popularity with the people. He was again brought to trial, but the pressure of popular opinion in his favor deter mined his acquittal. But Cromwell soon after secured his condemnation and banishment for a vicious attack on Kaslering. He then resided in Brussels and Amsterdam. After the dissolution of the "long parliament," he returned to England without permission, and Cromwell sought to imprison him in the Tower; but it ended in his remaining in Eng land as a prisoner at large. Towards the close of his quarrelsome life he espoused the doctrines of the Friends, or Quakers. Judge Jenkins said of him: " Were John Lil burne the only man living on the earth, Lilburne would dispute with John, and John with Lilburne." An account of his trials, entitled Truth's Victory over Tyrants, was published in 1649.