Roger Crab [1621 - 1680]
Hermit, pacifist, vegetarian, ascetic, celibate, teetotaller, herbalist, agitator in the Parliamentarian army, hatter, follower of (the extraordinary and charismatic blasphemer[1]) John Robins, member of the Philadelphians, Familist, standing 6' 7" (approx. 2m) tall.
In 1641, the year before the English Civil War broke out, Roger Crab became a vegetarian, as 'Eating of flesh is an absolute enemy to pure Nature'. He joined the Parliamentarian Army, where he served for seven years. Condemned to death by Oliver Cromwell, presumably for political agitation, perhaps an involvement with the Levellers, he spent two years imprisoned, but was released without the execution taking place.
In 1648, during the battle for Colchester, he received a near-fatal blow to the head, leading to his discharge from the army, after which he denounced violence and became a pacifist. He moved to Chesham and set up as a hat seller for three years, before disbanding his business and giving away his property to his poorest neighbours. Keeping just enough, he leased some land at Ickenham, near Uxbridge and built himself a house, taking up the life of a hermit, making his own clothes from sackcloth. Here he became known as a herbal doctor and received many patients.
Put in stocks, whipped, imprisoned four times for breaking the Sabbath, yet never silent. He published four pamphlets, The English Hermite [1655], Dagons-Downfall [1657], Gentle Correction for the High-flown Backslider [1659], and A Tender Salutation [1659].
In 1657 he moved to Bethnal Green, then a small hamlet about 2 miles outside of London, continuing to follow his ascetic lifestyle, subsisting on bran broth, turnip leaves, mallow leaves, herbs, roots, grass and water. He lived in a small cottage, still rejecting authority, (the "Whore-Master"), and convention, pursuing his mystical Christian vision, until his death in September 1680. He was buried in Stepney Churchyard.
Crab referred to the Church as the Whore-House and the clergy as the Pimps, in rejection of their hypocritcal use of religion. "You may observe the Whores houses in every Parish where her Pimps come to vent their Traffick to the Merchants and Beast." "If the elect are chosen from all Eternity, why do Priests take our money?" He was also critical of hypocrisy in his fellow common-man, the "labouring poor Men, which in Times of Scarcity pine and murmur for Want of Bread, cursing the Rich behind his Back; and before his Face, Cap and Knee and a whining countenance."
[1] The Declaration of John Robins and other writings. [Aporia Press 1992] Writings originally published in 1651.
