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.
Now 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 afternoon on this proud day for both
The Thomas Spence Trust, Newcastle City Council and the citizens of this
great city of ours.
I’ll now hand over to the Lord Mayor who will unveil the plaque, after
which my friend Gary Miller, esteemed singer and songwriter, will
perform a folk song which I’ve written as a tribute to Tom.
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 ‘Pig’s Meat’ written for Bruvvers Theatre Company)
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 ‘Pig’s Meat’ written for Bruvvers Theatre Company)
