Thomas Spence was born in Newcastle in 1750. Spence was the leading English revolutionary of his day, with an unbudgeable committment to individual and press freedom and the common ownership of the land.
His tracts, such as The Rights of Man (Spence was, perhaps, the first to use the phrase) and The Rights of Infants, along with his utopian visions of 'Crusonia' and 'Spensonia', were the most far-reaching radical statements of the period. Spence was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment, in 1814.
Although sometimes hailed as England's 'first modern socialist', Spence is not easily corralled by later ideologies. He was a mortal enemy of tyranny and what he called 'giantism' of all kinds.
Thomas Spence.co.uk has been founded to help ensure that the name and ambitions of Thomas Spence live on. We do not exist to venerate Thomas Spence. We welcome debate and contributions from readers on Spence's legacy and why it matters today. Arguments, thoughts, information, corrections, will be posted on our 'Debates' page.
Our e-mail address
contact@thomas-spence-society.co.uk
new discovery!
Thomas Spence's original 1775 pamphlet found
Spence's key statement was delivered to the Newcastle Philosophical Society in 1775. Spence was kicked out of the Society for printing his speech and selling it on the streets of Newcastle.
For many years the only edition that was thought to survive of Spence's lecture was from 1793, titled 'Rights of Man'. Dr David Gardner-Medwin recently discovered the orginal pamphlet at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society (founded 1793). We now know it was originally titled 'Property in Land Every One's Right'. This is a significant discovery and will be welcomed by everyone with an interest in British political history.
(with thanks to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society)
Spence 'Blue Plaque' in Newcastle: Latest News (2008)
This idea seems to have been kicked into the long grass by Newcastle City Council. Why? Because no one can say exactly where Spence was born on the Quayside. What is it with this form-filling attitude? In contrast to the vacuous eye-candy instant cultural spectacles that 'NewcastleGateshead' [sic] is happy to bend every rule for, a genuine local working-class hero of international repute meets with dreary bureaucracy. If not a blue plaque why not a red one? Or something else entirely. Why does this have to be pushed year after year by devotees? Spence was the most important political figure to ever come out of Newcastle. It's time Newcastle Council woke up to this and showed some imagination.
The Hive of Liberty: The Life and Works of Thomas Spence
edited by Keith Armstrong. This pamphlet is published by The Thomas Spence Trust, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Bay, NE26 3JD. Send £5 + £1.50 p+p. Money raised by this publication will help the Trust establish a memorial to Spence in Newcastle.
The pamphlet contains essays and poems by Spence as well as short pieces by Joan Beal, Keith Armstrong, Alastair Bonnett, George French, P.M. Ashraf and Olive Rudkin.
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Links
The best links for Spence are on the Spartacus Schoolnet
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRspence.htm
Three Spence texts not included on this site can be found at:
http://www.ditext.com/spence/dickinson.html
The texts are:
The Constitution of a Perfect Commonwealth
The Restorer of Society to its Natural State
The Important Trial of Thomas Spence
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Spence
http://online.unn.ac.uk/faculties/art/humanities/cns/m-spence2.html
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/people/spence.htm
Links on The Society of Speancean Philanthropists:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRspencean.htm
http://randomsounds.tripod.com/id3.html
Link to the Thomas Paine Society:
http://www.thomaspainesocietyuk.org.uk/index.htm
Full edition of Paine's The Rights of Man :
http://www.ushistory.org/Paine/rights/singlehtml.htm
North East History Links:
http://www.northeastlabourhistory.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://157.228.32.93/web/projects/nebibliog/ahome/
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Our banner line 'Hear me! ye oppressors!' is taken from the dialogue beween 'Woman' and 'Aristocracy' in Spence's 'The Rights of Infants' (1796). The full text can be found elsewhere on this site: see 'The Rights of Infants'.
This site has been constructed and written by Alastair Bonnett
Last modified: Feb. 2008
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Spence token
'T. Spence. 7 MONTHS IN IMPRISONMENT FOR HIGH TREASON. 1794'
