Breviary
Stuff is pleased to announce...
Thomas
Spence: The Poor Man's Revolutionary
Edited
by Alastair Bonnett & Keith Armstrong
paperback
• 156x234mm • ISBN 978-0-9570005-9-9
For
details and a table of
contents: http://www.breviarystuff.org.uk/thomas-spence-the-poor-mans-revolutionary/
Spence
described himself as ‘the poor man’s advocate’ but he may
equally be described as ‘the poor man’s revolutionary’, for
what he advocated was a dramatic over-turning of the existing social
order.
Perhaps
Spence can be best summed up one of the inscriptions he placed on one
of his self-minted coins, the coin his friends chose to place in his
coffin. It depicts a cat. It stares straight out at us, around it the
words, ‘IN SOCIETY LIVE FREE LIKE ME’. Spence wasn’t interested
in compromise, with reforms and half-freedoms. He was stubborn.
Contemporaries described him as ‘querulous’ and ‘single-minded’.
One obituary also observed he was ‘despised’, yet ‘not
despicable’.
But
who was Thomas Spence? And why did he excite such passions? This
collection of essays seeks to go some way to find answers to these
questions. It offers a series of insights from contemporary experts
on different aspects of Spence’s life and times. We are also
delighted to be publishing some pamphlets by Spence himself,
including Property
in Land Every One’s Right,
which has not been in print since it first appeared over 230 years
ago.
Spence’s
story is a rags to rags tale of defiance and ingenuity. Today
Spence’s name is little known but this in no way reflects his
significance. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century it
was synonymous with ultra-radical opinion. Thomas Spence was the
subject of four contemporary biographical memoirs. Moreover, three
years after his death an Act of Parliament was passed prohibiting
‘All societies or clubs calling themselves Spencean or Spencean
Philanthropists’. Spenceanism appears to be unique: it has a good
claim to be the only political ideology to have ever been outlawed by
the British Parliament.
Spence’s
scheme for local and democratic ownership of the land found a
receptive audience within sections of the labouring poor. In 1817
Thomas Malthus observed that, ‘an idea has lately prevailed among
the lower classes of society that the land is the people’s farm,
the rent of which ought to be divided equally among them’. This, in
a nutshell, is ‘Spence’s Plan’. It sounds simple but it carried
profound economic claims. It was a message spread more by way of
tavern meetings, chalked graffiti and ballads than by published
treatise.
In
1787 Spence moved to London, setting up a bookshop on Chancery Lane.
He plunged himself into the capital’s turbulent radical
sub-culture. He sold Thomas Paine’s The
Rights of Man and
went to prison for doing so. But he disagreed with Paine on a number
of fundamental issues. Paine had no qualms about private property in
land. Spence began issuing a penny weekly, Pigs’
Meat or, Lessons for the Swinish Multitude,
which could hardly have been more inflammatory. Spence was taking
considerable risks in a dangerous city: spies, threats and conspiracy
swirled around him.
Spence’s
wish for ‘perfect freedom’ often took him one step further than
his peers. He accorded women equal democratic rights. For the time it
was a daring idea but Spence went even further. For what about the
rights of children? Spence’s The
Rights of Infants no
doubt provoked more than a few incredulous smiles when it was
published in 1796. Yet cruelty towards children was a topic Spence
returned to time and again and it is fitting that today he is cited
as one of the world’s first champions of children’s rights.
He
was an angry man, a revolutionary and an insurrectionist but he was
anchored by humanitarian concerns and a wide-ranging, omnivorous,
interest in the betterment of his fellows. In this book we hope to go
some way in retrieving Spence, of bringing him before a new
generation.
Breviary
Stuff Publications
BCM
Breviary Stuff
London
WC1N 3XX
SPEECH
BY DR KEITH ARMSTRONG FOR HERITAGE OPEN DAYS’ COMMEMORATION OF THE
BICENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF THOMAS SPENCE AT THE SPENCE PLAQUE,
BROAD GARTH, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, THURSDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER 2014:
On
behalf of The Thomas Spence Trust and Hertiage Open Days, I’m
delighted to welcome you here to mark the 150th anniversay of the
death of that great free spirit, utopian writer, land reformer and
courageous pioneering campaigner for the rights of men and women,
Thomas Spence. Myself and other members of our Trust campaigned for
well over 10 years for some kind of memorial to Tom Spence and it is
with great pride that we gather here today.
We
know that Spence was born on the Quayside on June 21st 1750. We know
that his father Jeremiah made fishing nets and sold hardware from a
booth on Sandhill and his mother Margaret kept a stocking stall, also
on Sandhill, but it has not been possible, all these years on, to
pinpoint the exact location of Thomas Spence’s birthplace, which is
why this plaque was installed here at Broad Garth, the site of his
school room and debating society and where he actually came to blows
with Thomas Bewick because of a dispute over the contentious matter
of property. Bewick gave Spence a beating with cudgels on that
occasion but, surprisingly enough, they remained lifelong friends. As
Bewick said of Spence: ‘He was one of the warmest Philanthropists
in the world and the happiness of Mankind seemed, with him, to absorb
every other consideration.’
In
these days of bland career politicians, Spence stands out as an
example of a free spirit, prepared to go to prison for his principles
- the principles of grass roots freedom, community and democracy, for
the human rights of people all over the world.
Spence
mobilised politically in taverns in Newcastle and later in London.
That is why this evening you are all invited to join us across the
road in the Red House on Newcastle’s Quayside to raise a glass for
Tom and to hear poems and songs in his honour.
This
plaque puts Thomas Spence on the map for all of those pilgrims who
hold human rights and political freedoms dear. It does not trap his
free spirit rather it gives his life and work fresh wings.
Thanks
for coming this afternoon.
FOLK
SONG FOR THOMAS SPENCE
(1750-1814)
Down
by the old Quayside,
I
heard a young man cry,
among
the nets and ships he made his way.
As
the keelboats buzzed along,
he
sang a seagull’s song;
he
cried out for the Rights of you and me.
Oh
lads, that man was Thomas Spence,
he
gave up all his life
just
to be free.
Up
and down the cobbled Side,
struggling
on through the Broad Chare,
he
shouted out his wares
for
you and me.
Oh
lads, you should have seen him gan,
he
was a man the likes you rarely see.
With
a pamphlet in his hand,
and
a poem at his command,
he
haunts the Quayside still
and
his words sing.
His
folks they both were Scots,
sold
socks and fishing nets,
through
the Fog on the Tyne they plied their trade.
In
this theatre of life,
the
crying and the strife,
they
tried to be decent and be strong.
Oh
lads, that man was Thomas Spence,
he
gave up all his life
just
to be free.
Up
and down the cobbled Side,
struggling
on through the Broad Chare,
he
shouted out his wares
for
you and me.
Oh
lads, you should have seen him gan,
he
was a man the likes you rarely see.
With
a pamphlet in his hand,
and
a poem at his command,
he
haunts the Quayside still
and
his words sing.
KEITH
ARMSTRONG
(from
the music-theatre piece ‘Pigs' Meat’ written for Bruvvers Theatre
Company)
THE
THOMAS SPENCE TRUST
93
Woodburn Square, Whitley Lodge, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26
3JD Tel. 0191 2529531
It’s
good to welcome the establishment of The Thomas Spence Trust, founded
by a group of Tyneside activists intent on celebrating and promoting
the life and work of that noted pioneer of people’s rights,
pamphleteer and poet Thomas Spence (1750-1814), who has born on
Newcastle’s Quayside in those turbulent times.
Spence
served in his father’s netmaking trade from the age of ten but went
on later to be a teacher at Haydon Bridge Free Grammar School and at
St. Ann’s Church in Byker under the City Corporation. In 1775, he
read his famous lecture on the right to property in land to the
Newcastle Philosophical Society, who voted his expulsion at their
next meeting.
He
claimed to have invented the phrase ‘The Rights of Man’ and
chalked it in the caves at Marsden Rocks in South Shields in honour
of the working class hero ‘Blaster Jack’ Bates, who lived
there.
He
even came to blows with famed Tyneside wood-engraver Thomas Bewick
(to whom a memorial has been recently established on the streets of
Newcastle) over a political issue, and was thrashed with cudgels for
his trouble.
From
1792, having moved to London, he took part in radical agitations,
particularly against the war with France. He was arrested several
times for selling his own and other seditious books and was
imprisoned for six months without trial in 1794, and sentenced to
three years for his Restorer of Society to its Natural State in 1801.
Whilst
politicians such as Edmund Burke saw the mass of people as the
‘Swinish Multitude’, Spence saw creative potential in everybody
and broadcast his ideas in the periodical Pigs’ Meat.
He
had a stall in London’s Chancery Lane, where he sold books and
saloup, and later set up a small shop called The Hive of Liberty in
Holborn.
He
died in poverty ‘leaving nothing to his friends but an injunction
to promote his Plan and the remembrance of his inflexible integrity’.
The
Thomas Spence Trust organised a mini-festival to celebrate Spence in
2000 when it published a booklet on his life and work, together with
related events, with the aid of Awards for All.
Trust
founder-member, poet Keith Armstrong has written a play for Bruvvers
Theatre Company on the socialist pioneer which has been performed at
St. Ann’s Church and other venues in the city.
The
Trust has successfully campaigned for a plaque on the Quayside in
Newcastle, where Spence was born. The plaque was unveiled on Monday
June 21st 2010, Spence's 260th birthday, with a number of talks,
displays and events coinciding with it.
Further
information from: Dr Keith Armstrong, The Thomas Spence Trust, 93
Woodburn Square, Whitley Lodge, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26
3JD. Tel. 0191 2529531.
SPEECH
BY DR KEITH ARMSTRONG AT UNVEILING OF SPENCE PLAQUE:
On
behalf of The Thomas Spence Trust and Newcastle City Council, I’m
delighted to welcome you here today to unveil a plaque in honour of
that great free spirit, utopian writer, land reformer and courageous
pioneering campaigner for the rights of men and women, Thomas Spence.
Myself and other members of our Trust, especially Peter Dixon and
Tony Whittle, with the support of people like Professors Joan Beal,
Alastair Bonnett and Malcolm Chase and activists like Michael Mould,
Alan Myers and Councillor Nigel Todd, have campaigned for well over
10 years for some kind of memorial to Tom Spence and it is with great
pride that we assemble here with you today.
We
know that Spence was born on the Quayside on June 21st 1750, 260
years ago to this the longest day and Summer Solstice. We know that
his father Jeremiah made fishing nets and sold hardware from a booth
on Sandhill and his mother Margaret kept a stocking stall, also on
Sandhill, but it has not been possible, all these years on, to
pinpoint the exact location of Thomas Spence’s birthplace, which is
why this plaque has been installed here at Broad Garth, the site of
his school room and debating society and where he actually came to
blows with Thomas Bewick because of a dispute over the contentious
matter of property. Bewick gave Spence a beating with cudgels on that
occasion but, surprisingly enough, they remained lifelong friends. As
Bewick said of Spence: ‘He was one of the warmest Philanthropists
in the world and the happiness of Mankind seemed, with him, to absorb
every other consideration.’
In
these days of bland career politicians, Spence stands out as an
example of a free spirit, prepared to go to prison for his principles
- the principles of grass roots freedom, community and democracy, for
the human rights of people all over the world.
Spence
mobilised politically in taverns in Newcastle and later in London.
That is why this afternoon, after this short ceremony, you are all
invited to join us across the road in the Red House to raise a glass
for Tom and to hear informal talks, poems and songs in his honour.
You can hear further talks on Spence tonight at the Lit &
Phil, courtesy of the Workers’ Educational Association, and next
Monday at Newcastle Library, along with a display of his works, and,
if you like, you can join some of us at Marsden Grotto, South
Shields, tomorrow lunchtime, where Thomas first chalked the phrase
‘The Rights of Man’ on a cave wall, to raise another glass for
this man who in his own words ‘dared to be free.’
This
plaque puts Thomas Spence on the map for all of those pilgrims who
hold human rights and political freedoms dear. It does not trap his
free spirit rather it gives his life and work fresh wings.
Thanks
to you all for coming this afternon on this proud day for The Thomas
Spence Trust, Newcastle City Council and the citizens of this great
city of ours.