Plockhoy’s Portable Utopia: Bridging Radical Circles in England and in The Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter traces parallel movements of people and ideas between the United Provinces and England, through the example of Pieter Plockhoy.1 This relatively minor historical figure was part of radical circles in both countries; he proposed building ideal societies and a liberation of church worship in England, became a pamphleteer for egalitarianism and religious freedom of conscience, and persuaded the Magistrates of Amsterdam to back his visionary colony in North America.2 Considerable work exists on his political and intellectual influence, and the tradition of Protestant social reform he was part of; this chapter instead traces the variety of connections he was able to build up in both countries, adapting his utopian ideas to suit different contexts. The intellectual circles he encountered were similarly fluid, interconnected, and mobile.