Thomas Spence (21 June 1750 - 8 September 1814)

    source: http://thomas-spence-society.co.uk/

Introduction

Born into a poor artisan family on the quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne, Thomas Spence was to become one of the most radical writers and thinkers in late eighteenth century / early nineteenth century Britain. His lifelong devotion to propagating his plan for the reform of society was to earn him expulsion from the Newcastle Philosophical Society, two spells in jail, and eventually led to a law being passed after his death forbidding his followers from meeting in his name. Yet Spence’s other "plan", for the reform of English spelling, was equally important in his eyes. Spence’s Grand Repository of the English Language (1775) was written, not for gentlemen, but for "the laborious part of the people", in order to make reading, and therefore enlightenment, accessible to them.

source: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/sheffield/SheffieldBeal.htm

Books

• Armstrong, Keith. 2000. Bless'd millennium: The Life & Work of Thomas Spence (1750-1814). Northern Voices.
• Armstrong, Keith (ed.). 2007. The Hive of Liberty: The Life and Works of Thomas Spence. Whitley Bay: The Thomas Spence Society.
• Ashraf, P.M. 1983. The Life and Times of Thomas Spence. Newcastle: Frank Graham.
• Beal, J. 2002. English Pronunciation in the Eighteenth Century: Thomas Spence's "Grand Repository of the English Language". Oxford University Press.
• Chase, Malcolm.1988. The People's Farm. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Davenport, Allen. 1836. The Life, Writings and Principles of Thomas Spence, author of the Spencean System, or Agrarian Equality. London: Wakelin.
• Dickson, H. 1982. The Political Works of Thomas Spence. Avero.
• Gallop, G.I. 1982. Pigs' Meat: Selected Writings of Thomas Spence. London: Spokesman.
• Kemp-Ashraf, M. and Mitchell, J. 1966. Essays in Honour of William Gallacher: Supplement: Thomas Spence: The History of Crusonia and Other Writings. Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin.
• Rudkins, Olive. 1927. Thomas Spence and his Connections. George Allen and Unwin.
• Spence, T., Ogilivie, W. and Paine, T. 1920. The Pioneers of Land Reform: Thomas Spence, William Ogilivie, Thomas Paine, with an Introduction by M. Beer, G. Bell and Sons (reprints Spence's 1793 Rights of Man pamphlet).
• Waters, A. 1917. Trial of Thomas Spence in 1801, together with his Description of Spensonia, Constitution of Spensonia, End of Oppression, Recantation of the End of Oppression, Newcastle on Tyne Lecture delivered in 1775; also a brief life of Spence and a description of his political token dies. Courier Press.
• Worrall, David. 1992. Radical Culture: Discourse, Resistance and Surveillance, 1790-1820 (1992, Wayne State University Press

Articles

• Beal, Joan. 2004. "An Autodidact’s Lexicon: Thomas Spence’s Grand Repository of the English Language (1775)" In: Coleman, J. & McDermott, A. (eds.), Dictionary History and Historical Lexicography. Tubingen.
• Gupta, Anthea Fraser and Joan Beal. 2007. "Thomas Spence and Spelling." http://thomas-spence-society.co.uk/3.html
• Gupta, Anthea Fraser .1997. "Correct pronunciation and the Millenium".  English Today 51. 23-25. Can be found at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg/langpol3.doc
• Knox, T. 1977.  "Thomas Spence: the trumpet of Jubilee". Past and Preent 76, pages 75-98
• Morris, Brian. 1996.  "The agrarian socialism of Thomas Spence". In: Brian Morris,  Ecology and Anarchism. Images Publishing.
• Parssinen, T. 1973.  "Thomas Spence and the origins of English land nationalization". Journal of the History of Ideas 34.1. 135-141.
• Shields, A. 1974. "Thomas Spence and the English language". Transactions of the Philological Society 61. 33-64.
• Thompson, R. 1969. "The dies of Thomas Spence". British Numismatic Journal 38. 126-62.

 For additions, contact Patricia Chaudron