Thomas Spence
Thomas Spence (1750-1814) was an influential English radical, educator, and agrarian socialist, born in Newcastle. He grew up in a large family, receiving a modest education that was strongly influenced by Scottish Calvinism. This background, alongside his personal experiences, shaped his political views, particularly regarding land reform and common rights. Spence's activism took a significant turn after he moved to London in 1792, where he began promoting the ideas of Thomas Paine and published his own periodical, *Pig's Meat*, advocating for the nationalization and redistribution of property.
He was notable for his radical ideas on social reform, taxation, and his early advocacy for women's rights. Spence also published one of the earliest English dictionaries that included pronunciation, using a reformed phonetic alphabet to promote education among the working class. His writings employed various literary formats to engage a wider audience, illustrating his commitment to political and general education. After his death, his ideas continued to influence British radicalism through the Society of Spencean Philanthropists, highlighting the lasting impact of his vision for social justice and reform well into the 19th century.
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Thomas Spence
Pamphleteer
- Born: June 21, 1750
- Birthplace: Newcastle upon Tyne, England
- Died: September 1, 1814
Biography
Thomas Spence was born in Newcastle, England, in 1750. His father, a shoemaker, taught young Spence to read. He also learned net making. The overall education he received was permeated by the biblical fundamentalism of Scottish Calvinism. One of nineteen children, he worked as a schoolmaster and eventually adopted radical political views.
Spence’s radicalism came in part from his Calvinist roots, and in part from his life experiences. For example, a long-running dispute about the enclosure of Newcastle’s Town Moor was resolved in favor of the commoners, the freemen of the borough. The common rights they relinquished at enclosure were offset by the payment of rents from the land into charities for the benefit of the freemen and their families—suggesting to Spence a practical means by which agrarian reform could benefit all members of a community and not just the landholders.
Spence was heavily influenced by the writings of Thomas Paine. He moved to London in 1792 and sold Paine’s Rights of Man on street corners. An agrarian socialist, he started publishing a periodical called Pig’s Meat in 1794; within its pages, he argued for the nationalization and redistribution of English property. He was arrested and held in prison until December, 1794, one of many run-ins with the authorities.
Spence further described ideas on social reform, collectivization, and taxation in The Real Rights of Man, a pamphlet he published in 1775, as well as in many other pamphlets. He was expelled from the Newcastle Philosophical Society for printing it like “a halfpenny ballad” and having it hawked on the streets. In addition to his calls for agrarian reform, he was one of the first advocates of women’s rights.
Spence’s first book, The Grand Repository of the English Language, published in 1775, is one of the earliest English dictionaries that includes pronunciation. Spence persistently used his reformed phonetic alphabet to promote political and general education because he was convinced that inadequate education condemned laborers to poverty and injustice. Apart from this and another early book, Spence published his key political works and allegories according to his phonetic scheme. Spence’s use of travelogue, epistolary, and dialogue formats, together with the introduction (albeit tangential) of an appeal to divine authority, suggest that the author was consciously seeking to widen the appeal of his writings.
Spence died in September, 1814. After his death, the Society of Spencean Philanthropists, a group of followers who supported his socialist ideas, continued to meet for several years. Thus, Spence continued to be an important force in British radicalism until the decline of land reform as a major political issue around the time of World War I.