 As history tells, they were first called "Levellers," from the fact of their assembling at night and letting the fences with which the landlords endeavoured to enclose certain commons that had previously belonged to the people.But the pent-up agony of a long persecuted race having once found vent was not to be easily crushed, and for a period of twenty years the Whiteboys were the only protection the unfortunate Catholics had in their troubles.These men, most of whom banded together for the one noble object—to relieve their distressed condition—when going to perform any act of violence, blackened their faces and put on a white shirt over their dress as a disguise, from which they were called "Whiteboys."