Purpose
The purpose of these archives is to document the life journey of several people
who have, at one time or another, contributed to documentation about the life and times
of John Lilburne of England (c.1614-1657), in relationship to his maturing ideas that
have become cited as being a major source of inspiration for the written constitution
of the United States of America and especially its 'Bill of Rights'. While this work does not set out to create an encyclopedia about the life of John Lilburne
or the English Republic of those times, or even the events leading up to and including the
American Revolution, it does intend to chronicle how the actions and ideology of John
Lilburne did influence the authors of the written constitution that became the supreme
law of the United States of America.
Methodology
Because these archives reflect the continuing work of many people, these archives should
be considered in total as a work in progress to create a unique thesis about individual
liberty within organized society.
This work also forms a chronological story that evolved out of journalistic rather than
academic penmanship, and thus it is documented within a journalistic framework while adhering
where possible to the rigours of academic standards under the guidance of Eric Gilder, university professor at Sibiu, Romania.
By way of further explanation see the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigour
and the section In relation to intellectual honesty where intellectual rigour is defined as
"... keeping one's convictions in proportion to one's valid evidence."
Preface
These archives can be read in part by studying individual references, or as an anthology
composed of several biographical accounts of interlocking parts that form a new and singular
story. Unless you are already familiar with the unique theme of this story we suggest that these
archives are first read in chronological order.
Although the archives center upon the Seventeenth Century person of John Lilburne of England, this story
actually begins with Don Pierson of Texas in the Twentieth Century, because it was due to his
activities in England that this story came to be written.
Don Pierson was both a car dealer and a banker who also became a 'pirate radio' broadcasting entrepreneur
in England. It is in this latter regard that his activities and those of John Lilburne interlock through
the passage of time. John Lilburne was a 'pirate publisher' who challenged by the means of the printed
word, the same theory of law that was enforced by the forerunner of the same authoritarian body that Don Pierson
later challenged by means of the broadcast word. Consequently this story begins with a record of the activities
of Don Pierson in England between the years 1964 and 1967, while the biographical link between Lilburne and Pierson begins with Mervyn Hagger.
In the 1960s Hagger was a British Union of Journalists freelancer who was writing feature articles for various regional newspapers in England and working full time as both a technical writer and editor of a newspaper for a corporate group. It was as a British radio listener that his interests became attracted to the broadcasting activities of Don Pierson, and as a freelance journalist that he began documenting the political storm that Pierson was causing in Parliament and at BBC Broadcasting House.