is probably a conventional slander against all rebels who held anticlerical views, for lollard and social radicalism were very mixed in the minds of the governing class.¹
   The bulk of those involved in the rising appear to have come from the villages north and east of Sevenoaks near the London-Maidstone road or from along Watling Street between Gravesend and Rochester. Most of them are of the peasant or small craftsman class and apart from Ardern and Sharp there are no gentlemen. The rising must swiftly have been put down, or perhaps never really got started: it was followed by vigorous repression by the commission headed’ by the Earl of Shrewsbury, and twenty-eight men besides Wilkins are said to have been hanged.²  About 150 men are named in the indictments made by six juries: a large number seem to have been brought to trial but the numerous cancellations and amendments show that the presenting juries were unwilling to regard the offences of many of them as amounting to treason. On 17 June 1452, thirty-eight of those indicted were granted pardons for their association with Wilkins ³ : these are all noted in the indictments as having pardons, but the individual fate of the others, save for Wilkins himself, is rarely mentioned.
   (v) In translating and calendaring this text most of the common form and numerous repetitions have been omitted: wherever any substantial part of the text has been left out

 this is indicated. All significant detail has been included, with all names of persons and places : personal names are spelt as in the text (though forenames are translated) but place-names are spelt in modern fashion except in one or two doubtful cases. They are all Kentish save where otherwise noted. Dates are given in the modern form and numbers and values have been changed from words to figures. A man’s style and place of residence are given only in the first indictment in which he appears unless a later description differs from the first. Round brackets are used to indicate deletion in the manuscript, angled brackets to indicate interlineation. Where the original words are in English this is shown by quotation marks and the spelling has not been modernized. In a few cases of particular interest the Latin text has been given in brackets or in a footnote.
     The following abbreviations used in the original documents have been retained in the translation
          po. se.         "ponit se" (pleads not guilty).
             ff.                  "finem fecit" (made fine).
             non. cul.      "non culpabilis" (found not guilty).
             mar.              "maresceilcia" (surrendered to the Marshalsea).

   ¹  See M. Aston, ‘ Lollardy and Sedition 1381-1431 ‘, Past and Present, Vol. 17 (April91, 60), PP. 1.37.
   ²  British Museum MS. Cotton Roll, ii, 23. 
   ³  Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1446-52, p. 553.