Britannica, p. 2957; Thurloe, iii. 512). On 21 Jan. 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. Parliament on a similar petition recommended the repealing of the act, and the recommendation was carried by the restored Long parliament, 15 Aug. 1659 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658–9, p. 260; Commons' Journals, vii. 600, 608, 760).
Lilburne's political importance is easy to explain. In a revolution where others argued about the respective rights of king and parliament, he spoke always of the rights of the people. His dauntless courage and his powers of speech made him the idol of the mob. With Coke's 'Institutes' in his hand he was willing to tackle any tribunal. He was ready to assail any abuse at any cost to himself, but his passionate egotism made him a dangerous champion, and he continually sacrificed public causes to personal resentments. It would be unjust to deny that he had a real sympathy with sufferers from oppression or misfortune; even when he was himself an exile he could interest himself in the distresses of English prisoners of war, and exert the remains of his influence to get them relieved (Letter to Henry Marten, 8 Sept. 1652, MSS. of Captain Loder-Symonds, but cf. The Upright Man's Vindication, 1 Aug. 1653; Lieut.-col. John Lilburne Tried and Cast). In his controversies he was credulous, careless about the truth of his charges, and insatiably vindictive. He attacked in turn all constituted authorities—lords, commons, council of state, and council of officers—and quarrelled in succession with every ally. A life of Lilburne published in 1657 supplies this epitaph:
Is John departed, and is Lilburne gone!
Farewell to Lilburne, and farewell to John. . .
But lay John here, lay Lilburne here about,
For if they ever meet they will fall out.
A similar saying is attributed by Anthony Wood to 'magnanimous Judge Jenkins.'
There are the following contemporary portraits of Lilburne; (1) an oval, by G. Glover, prefixed to 'The Christian Man's Trial,' 1641. (2) the same portrait republished in 1646, with prison bars across the face to represent Lilburne's imprisonment. (3) a full length representing Lilburne pleading at the bar with Coke's 'Institutes' in his hand; prefixed to 'The Trial of Lieut.-col. John Lilburne, by Theodorus Varax,' 1649.
[A bibliographical list of Lilburne's pamphlets compiled by Mr. Edward Peacock, is printed in Notes and Queries for 1898. Most of them contain autobiographical matter. The earliest life of Lilburne is The Self-Afflicter lively Described, 8vo, 1657; the best is that contained in Biographia Britannica, 1760, v. 2937–61. Other lives are contained in Wood's Athenæ Oxon. and Guizot's Portraits Politiques des Hommes des différents Partis, 1851. Godwin, in his History of the Commonwealth, 1824, traces Lilburne's career with great care. Other authorities are cited in the text.]
LILBURNE, ROBERT (1613–1665), regicide, eldest son of Richard Lilburne of Thickley Puncherdon, Durham, and brother of John Lilburne, was two years old at the visitation of Durham in 1615 (Foster, Durham Pedigrees p. 215). At the beginning of the war he entered the parliamentary army, in 1644 was a captain in Manchester's army, and in 1647 colonel of a foot-regiment in the new model (Peacock, Army Lists, 2nd edit, p. 106; John Lilburne Innocency and Truth Justified, 1646, p. 42). Lilburne was one of the leaders in the opposition of the army to the parliament, promoted the petition of the officers, and did his best to prevent his regiment from volunteering for Ireland (Lords' Journals, ix. 115, 153; Rushworth, vii. 471, 555; Clarke Papers, i. 13). He was sent for by the House of Commons to answer for his conduct (29 March), but discharged on 25 May (Commons' Journals, v. 130, 184). Fairfax shortly afterwards appointed him governor of Newcastle (Rushworth, vii. 797). In November his regiment, which is described as 'the most mutinous regiment in the whole army,' expelled its officers, and took a leading part in the Ware rendezvous. Cromwell and Fairfax reduced it to obedience, and a few days later Lilburne and his officers presented an address to Fairfax as 'a manifestation of their integrity to his excellency and the weal public' (ib. vii. 875, 913, 922; Old Parliamentary History, xvi. 434; The Discoverer, 4to, 1649, pt. ii. p. 52). Lilburne played a prominent part in the second civil war, defeating Colonel Grey and Sir Richard Tempest with the Northumbrian cavaliers on 1 July 1648 (Rushworth, vii. 1177). He was nominated one of the king's judges in December 1648, attended several meetings, and signed his name to the death-warrant as the twenty-eighth in the list of signatures (Nalson, Trial of Charles I, edit. 1684, p. 110).
Lilburne took part in Cromwell's Scottish campaigns, and was left behind to guard Lancashire when Cromwell marched to Worcester. On 25 Aug. 1651 he utterly routed the Earl of Derby near Wigan, thus removing all danger of a royalist rising in the north (Cary, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 338;
