Thomas Spence ( 17508 September 1814) was an English RadicalThomas Spence
, Spartacus-Educational.com, accessed 27 February 2019 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, Spence later left Newcastle for London in 1787. He kept a book-stall in

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

. In 1794, with other members of the

London Corresponding Society The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associati ...

, he spent seven months in

Newgate Gaol Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, th ...

on a charge of high treason, and in 1801 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for seditious libel. He died in London on 8 September 1814.

Land reform and Spence's Plan

The threatened

enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

of the

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...

known as Town Moor in Newcastle in 1771 appears to have been key to Spence's interest in the land question and journey towards ultra-radicalism. His scheme was not for land nationalization but for the establishment of self-contained parochial communities, in which rent paid to the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

(wherein the absolute ownership of the land was vested) should be the only tax of any kind. His ideas and thinking on the subject were shaped by a variety of economic thinkers, including his friend Charles Hall. At the centre of Spence's work was his plan, which argued for: #The end of aristocracy and landlords; #All land should be publicly owned by 'democratic parishes', which should be largely self-governing; #Rents of land in parishes to be shared equally amongst parishioners, as a form of

social dividend The social dividend is the return on the capital assets and natural resources owned by society in a socialist economy. The concept notably appears as a key characteristic of market socialism, where it takes the form of a dividend payment to each ...

; #

Universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...

(including female suffrage) at both parish level and through a system of deputies elected by parishes to a national senate; #A 'social guarantee' extended to provide income for those unable to work; #The 'rights of infants' hildrento be free from abuse and poverty. Spence's Plan was first published in his penny pamphletbr>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 Henry Mayers Hyndman (; 7 March 1842 – 20 November 1921) was an English writer, politician and socialist. Originally a conservative, he was converted to socialism by Karl Marx's '' Communist Manifesto'' and launched Britain's first left-wing ...

under the title o
The Nationalization of the Land in 1795 and 1882
Spence explored his political and social concepts in a series of books about the fictional

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

n state of

Spensonia Spensonia is a fictional Utopian country created by the English author and political reformer Thomas Spence. Spence laid out his ideas about Spensonia in a series of literary works published in the late 18th century: * ''A Supplement to the Histor ...

"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 The Marsden Grotto, locally known as The Grotto, is a gastropub located on the coast at Marsden in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England. It is partly dug into the cliff face and fronted with a more conventional building opening onto the beach. ...

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 th
pages on English from the Spence Society

Rights of children

Spence publishe

in 1797 as a response to

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

's ''Agrarian Justice''. In this essay Spence proposes the introduction of an

unconditional basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of an ...

to all members of the community. Such allowance would be financed through the

socialization In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cul ...

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

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

's 1792 ''

Vindication of the Rights of Woman Vindication may refer to: * Vindication (horse) (2000–2008), American thoroughbred race horse * ''Vindication'' (Crease album) (2000), third album of US hard rock band Crease * ''Vindication'' (Susperia album) (2002), second album of Norwegia ...

''.

Memorial and legacy

Spence is listed on the Reformers Memorial in

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. His admirers formed a "Society of Spencean Philanthropists," of which some account is given in

Harriet Martineau Harriet Martineau (; 12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist often seen as the first female sociologist, focusing on race relations within much of her published material.Michael R. Hill (2002''Harriet Martineau: Theoretic ...

's ''England During the Thirty Years' Peace''. The

African Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

activists

William Davidson William or Bill Davidson may refer to: Businessmen * Bill Davidson (businessman) (1922–2009), Michigan businessman and sports team owner ** William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, named in honor of Bill Davidson * William Davidson ...

and Robert Wedderburn were drawn to this political group. Members of the Society of Spencean Philanthropists (including

Arthur Thistlewood Arthur Thistlewood (1774–1 May 1820) was an English radical activist and conspirator in the Cato Street Conspiracy. He planned to murder the cabinet, but there was a spy and he was apprehended with 12 other conspirators. He killed a policem ...

) maintained contacts with United Irish exiles in Paris, notably with the veteran conspirator William Putnam McCabe, and were implicated in the Spa Field riots of 1816 and the

Cato Street Conspiracy The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The name comes from the meeting place near Edgware Road in London. The police had an informer; the plotters fell in ...

of 1820.Alan Smith, "Arthur Thistlewood: A 'Regency Republican'." ''History Today'' 3 (1953): 846–52.

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)

References

Citations

Sources

* A. Bonnett, 'The Other Rights of Man: The Revolutionary Plan of Thomas Spence', ''History Today'' 57(9) (2007), pp. 42–48. * A. Bonnett and K. Armstrong (eds.), ''Thomas Spence: The Poor Man's Revolutionary'
(Breviary Stuff Publications, 2014)
. * M. Chase, ''The People's Farm: English Radical Agrarianism 1775–1840'
(Breviary Stuff Publications, 2010)
* * T. Evans, ''A Brief Sketch of the Life of Mr. Thomas Spence, Author of the Spencean System of Agrarian Fellowship or Partnership in Land'' (Author, Manchester 1821). * E. Mackenzie, 'Memoir of Thomas Spence', in ''A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Town and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne, including the Borough of Gateshead'' (Mackenzie and Dent, Newcastle Upon Tyne 1827), I
pp. 399-402
(Google). * T.M. Parssinen, "Thomas Spence and the Spenceans: A Study of Revolutionary Utopianism in the England of George III" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1968). * T.M. Parssinen, 'The Revolutionary Party in London, 1816–20', ''Historical Research'' 45 (2007), pp. 266–282 * F. Podmore, ''Robert Owen: A Biography'' (1907 / Haskell, New York 1971), I
p. 230 ff
(Google). * O.D. Rudkin, ''Thomas Spence and His Connections'' (International Publishers, New York 1927
(Hathi Trust)

External links

The Thomas Spence Society
* Thomas Spence

at marxists.org * M. Beer, ed.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Thomas British classical liberals English pamphleteers English political writers People from Newcastle upon Tyne 1750 births 1814 deaths Universal basic income writers English suffragists English-language spelling reform advocates