   thumb|250px|john lilburne john lilburne (1614 â 29 august 1657), also known as freeborn john, was an english political leveller before, during and after the english civil wars 1642â1650. he coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law. in his early life he was a puritan, though towards the end of his life he became a quaker. his works have been cited in opinions by the united states supreme court. ==early life== john lilburne was the son of richard lilburne, a landowner of estates at thickley punchardon and elsewhere in county durham.andrew bisset history of the commonwealth of england â from the death of charles i. to the expulsion of the long parliament he was probably born in sunderland but the exact date of his birth is unknown; there is some dispute as to whether he was born in 1613, 1614, or 1615. his father richard lilburne was the last man in england to insist that he should be allowed to settle a legal dispute with a trial by combat. john's elder brother robert lilburne also later became active in the parliamentary cause, but seems not to have shared john's leveller beliefs. by his own account lilburne received the first ten years' of his education in newcastle, almost certainly at the royal free grammar school.alan myers. john lilburne (c1614 â 1657), www.myersnorth.co.uk. retrieved 2008-12-10 he also had some schooling in bishop auckland. in the 1630s he was apprenticed to john hewson, cites lilburne the legal fundamental libertie
1614_births 1657_deaths 17th-century_English_writers Converts_to_Quakerism English_Quakers Lay_Puritans Levellers People_educated_at_the_Royal_Grammar_School,_Newcastle People_from_Sunderland,_Tyne_and_Wear Prisoners_and_detainees_of_Jersey Roundheads