 On 12 June , Wrawe attacked Sir Richard Lyons ' property at Overhall , advancing on to Cavendish and Bury St Edmunds in west Suffolk the next day , gathering further support as they went . John Cambridge , the Prior of the wealthy Bury St Edmunds Abbey , was disliked in the town , and Wrawe allied himself with the townspeople and stormed the abbey . The Prior escaped , but was found two days later and beheaded . A small band of rebels marched north to Thetford to extort protection money from the town , and another group tracked down Sir John Cavendish , the Chief Justice of the King 's Bench and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge . Cavendish was caught in Lakenheath and killed . John Battisford and Thomas Sampson independently led a revolt near Ipswich on 14 June . They took the town without opposition and looted the properties of the archdeacon and local tax officials . The violence spread out further , with attacks on many properties and the burning of the local court records . One official , Edmund Lakenheath , was forced to flee from the Suffolk coast by boat . 
