Which the father resenting, immediately knocked out the ruffian's brains with his hammer

From History of England by David Hume. The Peasant's Revolt of 1381 was occasioned by the imposition of a poll tax on all inhabitants aged fifteen and older.

The first disorder was raised by a blacksmith in a village of Essex. The tax-gatherers came to this man's shop while he was at work; and they demanded payment for his daughter, who he asserted to be below the age assigned by the statute. One of these fellows offered to produce a very indecent proof to the contrary, and at the same time laid hold of the maid: which the father resenting, immediately knocked out the ruffian's brains with his hammer.

And good grief. I dislike finding that I have wrongly attributed something.

One of the leaders of the revolt was a priest, John Ball who delivered a speech with this now famous phrase:

When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?

Meaning, in the beginning when Adam farmed the earth and Eve spun cloth, who was then the gentleman?

Famous, but that apparently failed to stop me from lazily attributing the lines to William Blake. I wonder why? Did he use the line in one of his poems? I can't quickly find the connection, but perhaps there is one, and I suspect it is one of his poems.

Blake did do a rendering of the incident with the blacksmith.

Click to enlarge.