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TheMidland Revolt was a popular uprising which occurred in theMidlands ofEngland in 1607. Beginning in late April inNorthamptonshire, inHaselbech,Pytchley andRushton, it spread toWarwickshire andLeicestershire in May. The riots were a protest against theenclosure ofcommon land[1] and drew considerable support, led by "Captain Pouch", otherwise John Reynolds, atinker said to be fromDesborough, Northamptonshire.[1] He claimed authority from the King to destroy enclosures and promised to protect protesters with the contents of his pouch, carried by his side, which would keep them from harm.[1] He urged them to use no violence in their efforts to destroy the enclosures. Three thousand were recorded atHillmorton, Warwickshire and 5000 atCotesbach, Leicestershire.[1] A curfew was imposed inLeicester, for fear its citizens would stream out to join the riots. They pulled down agibbet erected there as a warning. It was also during this period that the term 'leveller' was first used.
The culmination of the revolt was the Newton Rebellion. In early June, over a thousand protesters, including women and children, gathered inNewton, nearKettering, Northamptonshire, to protest against the enclosures by pulling out hedges and filling ditches.[2] KingJames I ordered hisdeputy lieutenants in Northamptonshire to put down the riots. The Treshams – the family at Newton and their better-knownRoman Catholic cousins atRushton Hall underFrancis Tresham, who had been involved two years earlier in theGunpowder Plot and had apparently died in theTower of London — were unpopular for voracious enclosure of land.Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton was the gentleman "most odious in this country".[3] The old Roman Catholic family of Treshams had long disputed about territory with an emergingPuritan family, the Montagus ofBoughton House. Now Tresham of Newton was enclosing common land, the Brand, which had been part ofRockingham Forest.
Edward Montagu, a deputy lieutenant, had spoken against enclosure in Parliament some years earlier, but was now placed by the King in the effective position of defending the Treshams. Local armed bands and militia refused to serve, so that landowners had to use their servants to suppress the rioters on 8 June 1607. The royalproclamation was read twice, but the rioters continued and the gentry and their forces charged. Forty or fifty were killed in the pitched battle and the leaders of the protest werehanged and quartered.
There is a memorial to the executed at St Faith's Church, Newton, but parish andassize records have disappeared. The Tresham family declined soon after. The Montagu family went on through marriage to becomeDukes of Buccleuch, one of the biggest landowners in Britain.[4]
The Newton Rebellion was one of the last occasions when the peasantry and the gentry of England were in open conflict. John Reynolds' pouch was found after he was captured. When opened, it was found to contain only a piece ofgreen cheese, according to the Chronicles of Stow. Reynolds was hanged.