Thomas Sprat
Dean of Westminster | |
|---|---|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1660 or earlier |
| Consecration | 1685 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1635 Beaminster, Dorset |
| Died | 20 May 1713 (aged 77–78) Bromley, Kent |
| Buried | St Nicholas' Chapel |
| Nationality | English |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Residence | Bishop's Palace, Bromley |
| Spouse | Helen Wolseley |
| Children | Thomas Sprat FRS, Archdeacon of Rochester |
| Profession | Clergyman |
| Alma mater | Wadham College, Oxford |
Thomas Sprat, FRS (1635 – 20 May 1713) was an English churchman and writer, Bishop of Rochester from 1684.
Life
Sprat was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670. Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660. In the preceding year he had gained a reputation by his poem To the Happie Memory of the most Renowned Prince Oliver, Lord Protector (London, 1659), and he was afterwards well known as a wit, preacher and man of letters.[1]
In 1669 Sprat became
Sprat was a member of
In 1692 a bizarre attempt was made to implicate Sprat in a plot to restore the deposed king James II. This became known as the "flowerpot plot" because it involved a conspirator—a man named Robert Young—forging Sprat's signature on a document, smuggling it into the Bishop's manor and hiding the paper under a flowerpot. The authorities were contacted about the document, which led to the Bishop's arrest for high treason and the searching of his house—the forged document was eventually found where Young had said it would be. However, Sprat was soon freed when it became clear that there was no case to answer.[2][3][4]
He died of apoplexy in 1713 at the Bishop's Palace in Bromley, Kent and was buried on the south side of St Nicholas' Chapel[5] in Westminster Abbey.[6] The monument is by Francis Bird.[7]
Works
Sprat's major prose works are the Observations upon Monsieur de Sorbier's Voyage into England (London, 1665), a satirical reply to the strictures on Englishmen in
A collection of ten of his sermons was published in 1710.
For his work on the history of science he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1663.[6]
Family
He married Helen, the daughter of Devereux Wolseley of Ravenstone, Staffordshire and was the father of Thomas Sprat, Archdeacon of Rochester and Fellow of the Royal Society. Shortly after the elder Sprat's death, his son was made a canon of Westminster Abbey.[8]
Notes
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Johnson, p36 ff.
- ^ Clinch, p15 ff.
- ^ Lee, 419 ff.
- ^ 'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A. R. p12: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966
- ^ a b "Fellow's details". Royal Society. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ Dictionary of British sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis
- ^ Westminster Abbey – Thomas Sprat (Accessed 16 April 2013)
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sprat, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 736.
- Clinch, George. Antiquarian Jottings: relating to Bromley, Hayes Keston, and West Wickham, in Kent (1889).
- Johnson, Samuel. The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: Vol. 2 (1821).
- Sprat, Thomas. History of the Royal Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge (London, 1667).
