Bartholomew Steer

Bartholomew Steer (baptised 1568, died 1597) led the unsuccessful Oxfordshire Rising of 1596. He was a carpenter, born in Hampton Poyle, Oxfordshire, brother to a weaver. In 1596 the area was suffering through famine and increasing poverty. The weavers and carders were severely affected by enclosure laws, and Steer, although he claimed upon his arrest that he was free and not in any want, lived in the midst of a great deal of suffering.