Thomas Sprat, FRS (163520 May 1713) was an English churchman and writer,

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester, Kent, Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Rochester Cathedral, Cathedral Chur ...

from 1684.

Life

Sprat was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670. Having taken orders he became a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, also called Lincoln Minster, and formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, is a Church of England cathedral in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Lincoln and is the Mo ...

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. In 1669 Sprat became canon of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

, and in 1670 rector of Uffington, Lincolnshire. He was chaplain to Charles II in 1676,

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

and lecturer at St Margaret's, Westminster, in 1679, canon of

Chapel Royal A chapel royal is an establishment in the British and Canadian royal households serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the royal family. Historically, the chapel royal was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarc ...

, Windsor in 1681, Dean of Westminster in 1683 and

in 1684. He was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal in 1685 and was Clerk of the Closet from 1685 to 1687. Sprat was a member of James II's ecclesiastical commission, and in 1688 he read the '' Declaration of Indulgence'' to empty benches in Westminster Abbey. The suggestion was that he was playing at being Vicar of Bray. Although he opposed the motion of 1689 declaring the throne vacant, he assisted at the coronation of

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Mary. As Dean of Westminster he directed

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

's restoration of the abbey. 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. 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 in

. The monument is by Francis Bird.

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 Samuel de Sorbière's book ''Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre'' (Paris, 1664), and a
History of the Royal Society of London
' (London, 1667), which Sprat had helped to found. The ''History of the Royal Society'' elaborates the scientific purposes of the academy and outlines some of the strictures of scientific writing that set the modern standards for clarity and conciseness. 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 Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1663.

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.Westminster Abbey – Thomas Sprat
(Accessed 16 April 2013)

Notes

References

* *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).

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spratt, Thomas 1635 births 1713 deaths People from Beaminster Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Deans of Westminster Bishops of Rochester 17th-century Church of England bishops 18th-century Church of England bishops Original fellows of the Royal Society Canons of Windsor Canons of Westminster Clerks of the Closet 17th-century English historians 17th-century Anglican theologians 18th-century Anglican theologians

Life

Works

Family

Notes

References

External links