Summary of the Leveller Tracts Project

Updated: May 24, 2018.

We are putting online a large collection of 17th century Leveller Tracts in 7 volumes. There will be about 300 texts online when we have finished. The tracts and pamphlets are being put online in their uncorrected form to begin with, and then in corrected form as we work through the hundreds of illegible words which are the result of the poor quality of the originals. .

Tracts on Liberty by the Levellers and their Critics (1638-1660), 7 vols. Edited by David M. Hart and Ross Kenyon (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2014-18). /titles/2595

To date, the following volumes have been fully corrected:

We also have 3 volumes of additional material which will be added to the Second Edition of the Leveller Tracts collection. These are still being corrected.

  • Addendum Vol. 8 (1638-1646): 33 titles with 1,858 illegible words and characters. /pages/leveller-tracts-8
  • Addendum Vol. 9 (1647-1649): 47 titles with 2,317 illegible words and characters. /pages/leveller-tracts-9
  • Addendum Vol. 10 (additional titles by John Lilburne and Richard Overton): 19 titles with 5,560 illegible words and characters. /pages/leveller-tracts-10

The Second Revised and Expanded Edition

A second revised edition of the collection is planned after the conversion of the texts has been completed. It will include an image of the title page of the original pamphlet, its location, date, and ID number in the Thomason Collection catalog, a brief bio of the author, and a brief description of the contents of the pamphlet. When the tract is comprised of more than one piece (the authors often added letters, copies of other petitions, or legal matter to their main piece) this will be indicated in the table of contents. Also, the titles from the addendum volumes will be merged into their relevant volumes by date of publication, so that the entire collection will be chronological order, the final version of which can be seen below.

We will also add links to other works which are already in the OLL Collection, such as:

  • “The Putney Debates" (28 Oct. - 1 Nov. 1647) - The General Council of Officers at Putney. In Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647-9) from the Clarke Manuscripts with Supplementary Documents, selected and edited with an Introduction A.S.P. Woodhouse, foreword by A.D. Lindsay (University of Chicago Press, 1951).
  • “The Whitehall Debates" (14 Dec, 1648 - 1 Jan. 1649), in Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647-9) from the Clarke Manuscripts.
  • a selection of prose works by John Milton. Marchmont Nedham, James Harrington, and others.

A working draft of the Second Edition with the titles (290) in various states of editing and correction is online. When the corrections have been completed, they will be added to the main OLL collection.

Further Information

See the following to sample some of the Leveller material:

For further information about the Levellers and the English Revolution: