Thomas Spence

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For other people named Thomas Spence, see Thomas Spence (disambiguation).

Thomas Spence
Base of the Reformers Memorial, Kensal Green Cemetery, showing Spence's name

Thomas Spence (2 July [O.S. 21 June] 1750 – 8 September 1814) was an English Radical[1] and advocate of the common ownership of land and a democratic equality of the sexes. Spence was one of the leading revolutionaries of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment, in 1814.

Life

Born in 1750 to a Presbyterian family,

libel. He died in London on 8 September 1814.[4]

Land reform and Spence's Plan

The threatened

Charles Hall
.

At the centre of Spence's work was his plan, which argued for:

  1. The end of aristocracy and landlords;
  2. All land should be publicly owned by 'democratic parishes', which should be largely self-governing;
  3. Rents of land in parishes to be shared equally amongst parishioners, as a form of social dividend;
  4. female suffrage
    ) at both parish level and through a system of deputies elected by parishes to a national senate;
  5. A 'social guarantee' extended to provide income for those unable to work;
  6. The 'rights of infants' [children] to be free from abuse and poverty.

Spence's Plan was first published in his penny pamphlet Property in Land Every One's Right in 1775. It was re-issued as The Real Rights of Man in later editions. It was also reissued by, amongst others, Henry Hyndman under the title of The Nationalization of the Land in 1795 and 1882.

Spence explored his political and social concepts in a series of books about the fictional Utopian state of Spensonia.

"Rights of man"

Spence may have been the first Englishman to speak of 'the rights of man'. The following recollection, composed in the third person, was written by Spence while he was in prison in London in 1794 on a charge of high treason. Spence was, he wrote,

the first, who as far as he knows, made use of the phrase "RIGHTS OF MAN", which was on the following remarkable occasion: A man who had been a farmer, and also a miner, and who had been ill-used by his landlords, dug a cave for himself by the seaside, at Marsdon Rocks, between Shields and Sunderland, about the year 1780, and the singularity of such a habitation, exciting the curiosity of many to pay him a visit; our author was one of that number. Exulting in the idea of a human being, who had bravely emancipated himself from the iron fangs of aristocracy, to live free from impost, he wrote extempore with chaulk above the fire place of this free man, the following lines:
Ye landlords vile, whose man's peace mar,
Come levy rents here if you can;
Your stewards and lawyers I defy,
And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN

This is in reference to the story of "Jack the Blaster" at Marsden Grotto.

Spelling reform

See also: English-language spelling reform

Spence was a self-taught radical with a deep regard for education as a means to liberation. He pioneered a phonetic script and pronunciation system designed to allow people to learn reading and pronunciation at the same time. He believed that if the correct pronunciation was visible in the spelling, everyone would pronounce English correctly, and the class distinctions carried by language would cease. This, he imagined, would bring a time of equality, peace and plenty: the millennium. He published the first English dictionary with pronunciations (1775) and made phonetic versions of many of his pamphlets.

Examples of Spence's spelling system can be seen on the pages on English from the Spence Society.

Rights of children

See also: Children's rights

Spence published The Rights of Infants in 1797 as a response to

unconditional basic income to all members of the community. Such allowance would be financed through the socialization
of land and the benefits of the rents received by each municipality. A part of everyone’s earnings would be seized by the State, and given to others.

Spence's essay also expresses a clear commitment to the rights of women, although he appears unaware of

Vindication of the Rights of Woman
.

Memorial and legacy

Spence is listed on the Reformers Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

His admirers formed a "Society of Spencean Philanthropists," of which some account is given in Harriet Martineau's England During the Thirty Years' Peace.[5] The African Caribbean activists William Davidson and Robert Wedderburn were drawn to this political group.

Members of the Society of Spencean Philanthropists (including Arthur Thistlewood) maintained contacts with United Irish exiles in Paris,[6] notably with the veteran conspirator William Putnam McCabe,[7] and were implicated in the Spa Field riots[8] of 1816 and the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820.[9]

Selected publications

  • The Real Rights of Man (1793)
  • End of Oppression (1795)
  • Rights of Infants (1796)
  • Constitution of Spensonia (1801)
  • The Important Trial of Thomas Spence (1807)
  • Giant Killer or Anti-Landlord (1814)

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Thomas Spence Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine, Spartacus-Educational.com, accessed 27 February 2019
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-925667-9
    . Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  3. S2CID 153759473
    .
  4. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  5. ^ See also A. Davenport, Life, Writings and Principles of Thomas Spence (Wakelin, London 1836) (Google).
  6. JSTOR 24701793
    – via JSTOR.
  7. ISBN 9780198122869
    .
  8. ^ Bloy, Marjie. (2003). "The Spa Fields Riots, 2 December 1816". Retrieved 29 March 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Alan Smith, "Arthur Thistlewood: A 'Regency Republican'." History Today 3 (1953): 846–52.

Sources

External links

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