Note 356 — Chapter I · THE NEW RURAL ECONOMY

Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part III., pp. 49–50: “The attorney-general to Mr. Robert Cecil. Some information concerning those that intended the rebellion in Oxfordshire. Bartholemew Stere, carpenter ... was the first person of this insurrection. His outward pretence was to overthrow enclosures, and to help the poor commonalty, that were like to perish for want of corn, but intended to kill the gentlemen of that county and take the spoil, affirming that the commons long since in Spain did rise and kill the gentlemen in Spain and sithen have lived merrily there. After that he meant to have gone to London and joined with the prentices ... and it was but a month’s work to overrun England.”