The Common Greene - Reading Deptford History through Peter Linebaugh (in New Cross on Monday)

Radical historian and theorist of the commons Peter Linebaugh is the author of The London Hanged, The Many-Headed Hydra (with Marcus Rediker), The Magna Carta Manifesto, and introductions to a Verso book of Thomas Paine’s writing and PM’s new edition of E.P. Thompson’s William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. Linebaugh works at the University of Toledo, Ohio, but London features significantly in his writings. In fact last year I gave a history tour of Deptford to the fine people of New Cross Commoners which I subtitled 'reading Deptford history through Peter Linebaugh' (see below). 

Linebaugh is in town this week, giving a talk tomorrow (Saturday, 3 pm) at the Anarchist Bookfair in Mile End and then at Goldsmiths in New Cross on Monday 20th October. The Goldsmiths talk runs from 5pm - 7pm in the Professor Stuart Hall Building (formally New Academic Building) LG 02, with the title 'The Commons and the True Commons'. Linebaugh will talk about 'the value of what we hold in common, how it can be threatened by private interests, and the possibilities for resistance'. The talks will draw upon his new collection of essays, 'Stop, Thief!: The Commons, Enclosures, and Resistance' (PM Press, 2014). Should be good, last time I saw him at Goldsmiths in 2008, he managed to weave the Hobgoblin pub into his talk!

Reading Deptford history through Peter Linebaugh
(notes from May 2013 history walk with New Cross Commoners)

‘the commons is an activity and... it expresses relationships in society that are inseparable from relations to nature’ (Peter Linebaugh, The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All  )

1623 map of Deptford, with Thames on left  note ‘The Common Greene’ (Deptford Green)

Chips 'consisted of wood scraps and waste created during the work of a hewing, chopping, and sawing ship timbers. The term refers not to the wood itself but to the right of the worker to appropriate a certain amount it... In 1702 the Deptford men maintained the right to take chips out of the yard three times a day and to enlist the assistance of their families in their appropriation... In 1767 letters were published which explained the 'many Evils' arising from "upwards of two thousand, mostly Women" who entered the dockyard on Wednesdays and Saturdays' to collect wood scraps for fuel and other uses. High walls were built around the docks, not for national security, but to prevent the workers and families taking wood
(Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged:Crime And Civil Society In The Eighteenth Century )

Deptford Dockyard painted in the late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century by Joseph Farington

'The ship… provided a setting in which large numbers of workers cooperated on complex and synchronized tasks, under slavish, hierarchical discipline in which human will was subordinated to mechanical equipment, all for a money wage. The work, cooperation, and discipline of the ship made it a prototype of the factory’

At the same time as ‘sailors made the Atlantic a zone for the accumulation of capital, they began to join with others in faithfulness, or solidarity, producing a maritime radical tradition that also made it a zone of freedom. The ship thus became both an engine of capitalism in the wake of the bourgeois revolution in England and a setting of resistance’
(Linebaugh and Rediker, The Many Headed Hydra: the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic)

The 'St Albans' Floated out at Deptford, 1747 by John Cleveley the Elder

'The pirate ship "might be considered a multiracial maroon community". Hundreds were African. Sixty of Blackbeard's crew of a hundred were black. Rediker quotes the Negro of Deptford who in 1721 led "a Mutiny that we had too many Officers, and that work was too hard, and what not"'
(Peter Linebaugh, Magna Carta Manifesto)

Skull and crossbones at gate of St Nicholas Church, Deptford -
popularly, but probably erroneously believed to have inspired the Jolly Roger pirate flag

The Magna Carta limited the enclosure of the river banks as well as enclosure of woodland as 'forests': ‘All forests that have been created in our reign shall at once be disafforested. River-banks that have been enclosed in our reign shall be treated similarly. All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated in every county by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably’ (Magna Carta, 1215, quoted in Linebaugh, Magna Carta Manifesto). 

What would it be like to treat the river and its banks as commons? What would we do here? As part of the ‘Right to the City’ what would the ‘Right to the River’ look like?

(at this point on our walk we had a picnic and chat on the beach of the Thames next to Convoys Wharf)

Architect sketch of proposed Convoys Wharf development

See also Peter Linebaugh on John Evelyn of Deptford

Deptford Dockyard Closure Announcement

The announcement of the closure of Deptford Dockyard, as reported in Welsh newspaper County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser, 15 August 1868. It mentions that 'The yard employs 800 artisans, 250 of whom have been already discharged or otherwise drafted to other yards, leaving 650 to be similarly dealt with', and that three boats remained to be finished HMS Curlew, HMS Spartan and HMS Druid, the latter the final boat built there, launched in 1869. The Dockyard site is now the projected location for the controversial Convoys Wharf development.

Deptford Anchor Saga: the next chapter

For the last twenty years or so there has been an anchor at the Broadway end of Deptford High Street, a nod to the area's maritime past (although actually it came from Chatham dockyard rather than Deptford). Famously it became the place to hang out for the area's street drinkers - then in April it suddenly disappeared as part of the redevelopment of  the High Street.

Photo from Ben Greville's remarkable series of photos of the Anchor

The anchor has ended up on the closed Convoys Wharf site - perhaps with  a view to it being used in the proposed development there. Rather strange, as that development  hasn't even got planning permission and hopefully will never happen in its current proposed form. Those who miss the old anchor have taken to drawing anchors where it once stood.

Meanwhile a replica anchor has been made and is currently residing in the Master Shipwrights House garden. It may well feature this coming Saturday 5th October when:

'Rediscovered Urban Rituals in collaboration with Deptford Is Forever present Give Us Back Our Blooming Anchor procession. Gathering Midday from the Dog and Bell, 116 Prince St. SE8 to the Arthouse Lewisham way Deptford High Street and Market (approx 12.45pm). Come follow the Anchor with its bearers and rough musicians and revel in the spectacle of this iconic Deptford Symbol on its journey back to its rightful place at the head of the high street and beyond'.

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Deptford High Street 'Kids Love Ink' tattoo parlour will also be doing anchor tattoos on the day.

Open Shipwrights House

It's London Open House this weekend, so lots of opportunities to visit interesting buildings many of which are usually closed to the public. In Deptford, the magnificent Master Shipwrights House on the river front will be open all weekend (entrance on Watergate Street)

The garden of the Shipwrights House last night - the cannon was dug up at Potters Fields by Tower Bridge. Why is there a replica of the Deptford anchor there? And why is the real Deptford anchor currently in Convoys Wharf?  Go along this weekend and ask!

This year is the 500th anniversary of the Royal Naval Yard at Deptford, and this is the oldest building remaining from it - the home and office of the master shipwright  since 1513, remodeled in early 18th century. Today they will be highlighting the proposal to build a replica 17th century ship (The Lenox) as part of the planned redevelopment of Convoys Wharf - the remainder of the dockyard site next door. 

In fact at 10:30 this morning there will be a  Build the Lenox press call featuring 'Samuel Pepys' and 'Henry VIII' and the firing of a cannon. Horrible Histories stars Ben Willbond (who lives in Deptford) and Larry

Rickard will be taking part.

Convoys Wharf  itself will also be open as part of Open House, from 11 am to 4 pm today only.

More information about Convoys Wharf at Deptford Is?

Previous Transpontine posts on Convoys Wharf for more history and the ongoing saga of the dubious plans for this site.

See also: Crosswhatfields? and Deptford Dame

Two William Penns in Deptford

A little July 4th historical piece on two William Penns. 

William Penn the elder (1621-1670) was an Admiral in the British navy, serving both the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War and the King after the restoration of the monarchy. Like most naval officers of his period, he was a visitor to Deptford where many of the ships he sailed and commanded were built and launched. 

In 1644 for instance, he set sail from Deptford on board the Fellowship, which operated in the Irish Sea against the King's forces. In 1646 he took command of the Assurance, a ship built in the Dockyard at Deptford. Then in 1650 he was commissioned to command the Fairfax, then being completed at Deptford. His instructions this time were to lead a squadron of eight ships to attack Portuguese ships on their way home from Brazil. In 1655, he was a commander in Cromwell's naval expedition to the West Indies which completed the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish. Penn went on to be an MP.

Penn's son, also William Penn (1644-1718) is famed as the founder of the state of Pennsylvania. He was a prominent Quaker, and was jailed for his religious views.  As the King owed his father money he was able to negotiate for the King to grant him land in America - this was also intended to resolve religious conflict at home by providing a place for persecuted Quakers to emigrate to. Penn planned to call the area New Wales then Sylvania, but King Charles II named it Pennsylvania in honor of his father. Penn's Frame of Government for the province, which included freedom of religion, was an influence on those who drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

William Penn, aged 22

Penn the younger's main recorded visits to Deptford relate to Peter the Great's stay in the area in 1698. While studying the shipbuilding industry, the Russian Czar stayed at John Evelyn's house in Deptford (though he and Evelyn never met). As Sarah Young notes, the details of his visit are shrouded in myth, 'confusion and apocryphal tales'. It is unclear exactly what the interaction between Peter and the Quakers (Society of Friends) involved, but they  involved William Penn (who by then had returned to England).

A plaque on the wall of what is now the Salvation Army shop on Deptford High Street states: 'Deptford Friends' Meeting House Stood Here' (Demolished 1807). Peter the Great Czar of Russia worshipped here 1697-8'. The Czar does seem to have visited the Deptford Quaker meeting house, but I am not sure that Penn met Peter here. Penn did though attempted to visit him at Deptford and may have spoken to him. According to Passages from the life and writings of William Penn by Thomas Pym Cope (1882) 'The Czar became so much interested in Friends, that he sometimes attended their meetings at Deptford. William Penn afterwards wrote him the following letter: 'It was a profound respect, and not a vain curiosity, great Czar, which brought me twice to wait upon thee." It is recorded that when Penn called on Peter in April 1698, the latter refused to meet him. But he did subsequently receive two Quakers, which may be the second visit Penn refers to (see Peter the Great Through British Eyes, Anthony Cross, 2000). 

144 Deptford High Street, a 1920s building on the site of the Friends Meeting House

History Corner: John Evelyn of Deptford

John Evelyn (1620-1706) has cropped up a few times for me in the last week. The seventeenth century diarist, writer, gardener and government official is remembered in the names of the local Evelyn Street and Lewisham's Evelyn Ward, among other places.

Portrait of Evelyn by Robert Walker

Last Saturday I gave a history tour of the Deptford riverfront to New Cross Commoners, ending up with a picnic on the beach. We looked at the Convoys Wharf site, and I mentioned that part of it covered the site of Sayes Court - Evelyn's home from 1652-1690.

While preparing for the walk, I had been reading a lot of Peter Linebaugh. The historian's various works provide a good context for understanding Detpford history. 'The London Hanged' in particular includes lots of information about the working practices on the Royal Dockyard in the 18th century; 'The Many Headed Hydra' deals with maritime radicalism and the circulation of sailors, pirates and slaves across the Atlantic; and 'The Magna Carta Manifesto' deals with commons and enclosure through the lens of the Forest Charter sections of the Magna Carta which sought to safeguard the common rights of access to woodland  from Royal encroachment.

In the latter, Linebaugh writes of Evelyn as an apologist for enclosure, seeking to put the knowledge of trees at the service of empire:

'English forests were cut down at such a rate that toward the end of the century John Evelyn despaired of the national security, inasmuch as the navy provided the island’s “wooden walls.” The expansion of the British empire was by means of wood products and it was to the end of acquiring wood products. Restoration diarist and gentleman environmentalist John Evelyn (1620–1706) inherited a fortune that his grandfather had accumulated under James I and Charles I through his royal monopoly on saltpeter, essential ingredient (with sulfur and charcoal) to gunpowder. The “saltpeter man” forcibly ransacked stables, barns, dovecots, pigeon houses in search of potassium nitrate. The grandson’s project was to make an inventory of English trees in terms of their use values, and to convey this knowledge from commoners to commercial, scientific, and military markets. Not once does Evelyn mention the Forest Charter. Enclosed woods thrive better than unfenced forest. He wrote disdainfully of “satisfying a few clamorous, and rude Commoners.” He could not escape a millennium of custom, but he could bury it within Latin and Greek obscurantism. He concluded by quoting a Latin proverb of Erasmus, who was paraphrasing the Greek poet Theocritus, Praesente Quercu ligna quivis colligit, “In the presence of an oak every- one collects firewood.” Referring to An Act for the Punishment of Unlawful Cutting or Stealing or Spoiling of Wood (15 Charles II c.2), he coolly noted that ancient law punished the “beheading” of a tree by the forfeiture of a hand'.

Others have seen Evelyn more positively as a proto-environmentalist, writing against London pollution and for the preservation of trees. One strand of the campaign against current development plans for the Convoys Wharf site is the call to acknowledge or even recreate Evelyn's historic garden there (see Sayes Court - London's Lost Garden for lots of interesting historical material).

Evelyn's Cabinet

As reported in the Guardian at the weekend (18 May), a cabinet of Evelyn's features (along with the Horniman Museum's walrus) in a new exhibition in Margate. Curator Brian Dillon writes

Consider this curious item of furniture, which belongs to the Geffrye Museum in London and appears at Turner Contemporary, Margate, as part of Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing. The object in question, at once austere and elaborate, is a cabinet of intricately carved ebony that stands on eight slender legs and opens to reveal a prismatic array of interior drawers and doors, rendered in fruitwood and ivory. The thing is said to have been made by the renowned Dutch craftsman Pierre Golle, though we cannot be sure. What's certain is that it was bought in Paris in 1652 by Mary Evelyn: wife of the polymath John Evelyn, who used it to store prints and small items. The empty cabinet is a reminder of the capaciousness of Evelyn's intellect and imagination: by the time he died in 1706, he had completed not only half a million pages of his celebrated diary, but treatises on medicine, mathematics, air pollution and the cultivation of trees. He had even written a discourse on salads'.

Evelyn and Slavery


It can't be denied though that Evelyn had a role in the administration of slavery. A royalist during the Civil War, he was later appointed by the King as an official to the Council of Foreign Plantations in a period when plantations were expanding in America and the Caribbean on the backs of slave labour. Even in this period, there were controversies about this in the face of slave demands for freedom. In his diaries Evelyn mentions the arguments about whether slaves should be allowed to be baptised as Christians - since some argued that as Christians they should no longer be treated as slaves: 'I may not forget a resolution which his Majesty made, and had a little before entered upon it at the Council Board at Windsor or Whitehall, that the negroes in the plantations should all be baptized, exceedingly declaiming against that impiety of their masters prohibiting it, out of a mistaken opinion that they would be ipso facto free; but his Majesty persists in his resolution to have them christened'. Evelyn also mentions the attempted slave revolt in Barbados in 1692: 'there was a conspiracy among the negroes in Barbadoes to murder all heir masters, discovered by overhearing a discourse of two of the slaves, and so preventing the execution of the design' - alleged conspirators were hanged, burned alive and castrated by the authorities.

Deptford Panorama 1844

The Grand Panorama of London from the Thames (1844) was a twelve feet wood engraving, a printed version of which was circulated to subscribers of the Pictorial Times newspaper.

The Deptford sections clearly show St Pauls Church, the buildings of the Deptford dockyard and to their west the Royal Victualling Office. The ships include a number of hulks - vessels no longer fit for the sea used variously as floating prisons or for quarantining people with small pox.