This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Thomas Venner was born around 1608 in Littleham, Devon, and worked as a cooper in London before emigrating to New England in 1637; he returned to England some years later and became the last leader of the Fifth Monarchists, a movement that expected the imminent arrival of Christ's fifth monarchy and, in Venner's own reading, saw armed action as a way to help bring it about by force rather than waiting for it to arrive on its own.
In April 1657 Venner led an attempted rising against Oliver Cromwell's government, assembling armed followers at Mile End under a banner reading Who Shall Rouse Him Up, a call to action aimed squarely at a government Venner and his followers judged to have fallen short of the godly rule the fifth monarchy demanded. The plot had, however, been infiltrated by John Thurloe, Cromwell's intelligence chief, before it could proceed.
Venner was arrested and held without trial in the Tower of London for about two years, a lengthy imprisonment that removed him from action but did not end his commitment to the cause. His release left him free to attempt a second rising once political circumstances changed, a plan he carried out within months of Cromwell's own government finally coming to an end.