ew days all the commons of Essex were in a state of insurrection,
under the command of a profligate priest, who had assumed the name of
Jack Straw.

The men of Kent were not long behind their neighbors in Essex. At
Dartford one of the collectors had demanded the tax for a young girl,
the daughter of a tyler. Her mother maintained that she was under the
age required by the statute; and the officer was proceeding to ascertain
the fact by an indecent exposure of her person, when her father, who had
just returned from work, with a stroke of his hammer beat out the
offender's brains. His courage was applauded by his neighbors. They
swore that they would protect him from punishment, and by threats and
promises secured the cooperation of all the villages in the western
division of Kent.

A third party of insurgents was formed by the men of Gravesend,
irritated at the conduct of Sir Simon Burley. He had claimed one of the
burghers as his bondman, refused to grant him his freedom at a less
price than three hundred pounds, and sent him a prisoner to the castle
of Rochester. With the aid of a body of insurgents from Essex, the
castle was taken and the captive liberated. At Maidstone they appointed
Wat the tyler, of that town, leader of the commons of Kent, and took
with them an itinerant preacher of the name of John Ball, who for his
seditious and heterodox harangues had been confined by order of the
archbishop. The mayor and aldermen of Canterbury were compelled to swear
fidelity to the good cause; several of the citizens were slain; and five
hundred joined them in their intended march toward London. When they
reached Blackheath their numbers are said to have amounted to one
hundred thousand men. To this lawless and tumultuous multitude Ball was
appointed preacher, and assumed for the text of his first sermon the
following lines:

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"

He told them that by nature all men were born equal; that the
distinction of bondage and freedom was the invention of their
oppressors, and contrary to the views of their Creator; that God now
offered them the means of recovering their liberty, and that, if they
continued slaves, the blame must rest with themselves; that it was
necessary to dispose of the archbishop, the earls and barons, the
judges, lawyers, and questmongers; and that when the distinction of
ranks was abolished, all would be free, because all would be of the same