Male Suffrage In Sir William Clarke's Putney Debates

The Putney Debaters, along with the Diggers and revolutionary women discussed post-Civil War English society in a series of petitions and writings, which suggested radical ideas for political and social equality. Issues called into question were male suffrage and the position of the monarch and Parliament.
The Agreement of the People was the constitutional manifesto of the Levellers. They were influenced not just by precedent, but by their own afflictions to define the powers of the government and set limits on Parliament, “being compelled thereunto not only by the examples of our ancestors . . . but also by our own woeful experience.” Furthermore, the Levellers were very critical of the practices of Parliament; they communicated their beliefs by way of what Parliament should do.
The debate over male suffrage became the focal point in Sir William Clarke’s transcript of the Putney Debates. Colonel Rainborow made the radical statement, “I think that the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he . . . I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that Government that he has not had

a voice to put himself under.” He appealed for democratic rights, but was immediately subjected to Commissary Ireton’s retort that male suffrage is tantamount to anarchy, and the vote should be restricted to property owners.
Gerrard Winstanley’s Digger pamphlet postulated a reformed democratic society of the common man as opposed to the current post-war society based on wealth and privilege.

He concentrated on the plight of the forgotten man; the sick, hungry, poor, and destitute. He was very critical and accusatory of the nobility, and was firm is his resolve to combat injustice, stating he would “be held under the slavish fear of you no longer.” He argued that freedom from injustice was the only way to prosper – simply voicing opinions would not do. Winstanley argued that the wealthy obtained their land by murdering and cheating, and they were able to keep it for themselves by the same means, but the diggers were denied the same right to own land. Yet, the nobility still provoked the quarrel over property rights, not the

diggers.
The Civil War prompted women to advocate for their privilege to demand their rights publically, just as the men had done, by justifying it with scripture. If both men and women were created equally in the eyes of God, then why were women denied the right of petitioning while men were able to retain that right? Moreover, Mary Carey argued if few men are able to fulfill their rights, then even fewer women were able to do so, but was unique from all the other debaters in her conclusion; she was almost optimistic in that she prophesied that the time would come when both men and women will have their promises fulfilled.