Joseph Spence (author)
Encyclopedia
Joseph Spence was a historian, literary scholar and anecdotist, most famous for his collection of anecdote
s (published in 1820) that are an invaluable resource for historians of 18th century English literature (Augustan literature
).
, Hampshire
, the son of Joseph (Rector of Winnal in Winchester
and Precentor
of Winchester Cathedral
) and Mirabella (née Collier, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Lunsford
).
In 1709, Spence attended school in Mortimer, near his birthplace, and later attended Eton College
and then Winchester College
. Spence matriculated to Magdalen Hall, Oxford on 11 April 1717, but did not go up until admitted as scholar or probationary fellow at New College
on 22 April 1720. On 30 April 1722, he received a full fellowship, taking his Bachelor of Arts degree on 9 March 1724 and Master of Arts on 2 November 1727. Spence was ordained in the Oxford diocese
on 5 June 1726. Early literary friends of Spence included fellow Wykehamists Robert Lowth
, Christopher Pitt
, and Edward Young
.
Spence wrote an essay on Alexander Pope
's translation of Homer
's Odyssey
in 1726 which gave rise to a friendship between Spence and Pope. In 1727 Pope published his comments on the second part of Spence's essay.
on 11 July 1728, holding the post for maximum term allowed (ten years). In the same month he was given the New College living of Birchanger
, Essex
, but continued to live in Oxford when not travelling abroad.
Recommended by Alexander Pope, Spence became a travelling companion of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, on a Grand Tour
lasting from December 1730 to July 1733. In 1731, while Spence was abroad, his Account of Stephen Duck
was published. On his return to Oxford he lectured and made mundane contributions to poetry collections marking royal weddings, births, and deaths. In 1736 he published An Account of Lord Buckhurst and an edition of Gorboduc
.
Spence was a companion to John Morley Trevor in his tour of the Netherlands, Flanders, and France between May 1737 and February 1738, and between September 1739 and November 1741 travelled in Italy with Henry Pelham-Clinton
. While touring, Spence frequently wrote letters to his mother, which he later edited for publication but never published.
On 4 June 1742 Spence became Regius Professor of Modern History
and exchanged Birchanger for Great Horwood
, Buckinghamshire
, which he visited each year and distributed charity. Around 1742 he gave up his fellowship at New College and settled with his mother in London and often visited Alexander Pope.
After much work, Spence published Polymetis as an illustrated folio in February 1747. He had first thought of such a work during his first visit to Italy and used much of the material he had collected there, intending to demonstrate the relationship between the works of ancient artists and of Roman poets. The work was criticsed by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
in his 1766 work, Laokoon, which subsequently adversely affected its standing.
In 1748 Henry Pelham-Clinton gave Spence the use of a house he owned at Byfleet
, Surrey
, which Spence and his mother moved into. Having designed Birchanger's garden along the lines of Pope's garden in Twickenham
, and planting extensively at Great Horwood, as well as designing gardens and making notes for friends London, Spence further explored his interest in landscape gardening at Byfleet - developing the 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) estate as a ferme ornée
. Though making extensive notes and translating Jean Denis Attiret
's account of the Emperor of China
's gardens, Spence left his gardening treatise, Tempe, unfinished. His translation of Attiret was published in 1752 under the pen name
of "Sir Harry Beaumont", which he also used for Crito, published in 1752, and Moralities, published in 1753.
In 1752-3 Spence published accounts of Robert Hill (tailor) and Thomas Blacklock
, and promoted a subscription edition of Blacklock's poems. In 1758, Spence travelled with James Dodsley
to visit Blacklock in Scotland, and en-route, visited William Shenstone
at The Leasowes
. Spence had his work Parallel in the Manner of Plutarch printed at Horace Walpole
's Strawberry Hill Press
in 1758, in order to raise money for Hill. In 1753 Spence provided notes for an edition of Virgil
written by Joseph Warton
, and in 1768 edited the Remarks on Virgil by Edward Holdsworth, the authors being friends and Old Wykehamists.
Spence was installed as a prebendary
of Durham Cathedral
on 24 May 1754, a posting on the generosity of the Bishop of Durham, Richard Trevor
. Spence continued to live at Byfleet and spent more than the minimum time required for his prebendal duties of three weeks' residence at Durham
. In Durham, he not only began to improve the garden of his prebendal estate, but also those of his neighbours, the bishop and the Earl of Darlington
, Henry Vane
, sometimes spending weeks at a time travelling to landscaped gardens where his advice had been sought.
Spence suffered a mild stroke during his annual journey north in June 1766, and made his will at Sedgefield
, Durham, on 4 August 1766. On 24 March 1767, Spence sold the copyrights, including those on his unpublished works, to James Dodsley for £100. On 20 August 1768 Spence was found lying face down in the shallow ornamental waters of his garden at Byfleet and was buried four days later at St Mary's, Byfleet.
and other literary figures such as John Arbuthnot
, Isaac Newton
, and Stephen Duck
.
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
s (published in 1820) that are an invaluable resource for historians of 18th century English literature (Augustan literature
Augustan literature
Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II on the 1740s with the deaths of Pope and Swift...
).
Early life
Spence was born on 28 April 1699, at KingsclereKingsclere
Kingsclere is a large village and civil parish in the county of Hampshire, England. Kingsclere is located near to Watership Down, the setting of Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down.-Geography:...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, the son of Joseph (Rector of Winnal in Winchester
Winchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
and Precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
of Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
) and Mirabella (née Collier, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Lunsford
Thomas Lunsford
Sir Thomas Lunsford was a Royalist colonel in the English Civil War.Lunsford committed a murderous assault upon Sir Thomas Pelham in 1633 and was outlawed for failing to appear to receive judgment in 1637. He was pardoned in 1639 and joined Charles I's army. He was made lieutenant of the Tower in...
).
In 1709, Spence attended school in Mortimer, near his birthplace, and later attended Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and then Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
. Spence matriculated to Magdalen Hall, Oxford on 11 April 1717, but did not go up until admitted as scholar or probationary fellow at New College
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
on 22 April 1720. On 30 April 1722, he received a full fellowship, taking his Bachelor of Arts degree on 9 March 1724 and Master of Arts on 2 November 1727. Spence was ordained in the Oxford diocese
Diocese of Oxford
-History:The Diocese of Oxford was created in 1541 out of part of the Diocese of Lincoln.In 1836 the Archdeaconry of Berkshire was transferred from the Diocese of Salisbury to Oxford...
on 5 June 1726. Early literary friends of Spence included fellow Wykehamists Robert Lowth
Robert Lowth
Robert Lowth FRS was a Bishop of the Church of England, Oxford Professor of Poetry and the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar.-Life:...
, Christopher Pitt
Christopher Pitt
Christopher Pitt was a British poet and translator.His translations to English include Virgil's Aeneid and Vida's Art of Poetry.Pitt was educated at Winchester College, leaving in 1719 to study at New College, Oxford...
, and Edward Young
Edward Young
Edward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:He was the son of Edward Young, later Dean of Salisbury, and was born at his father's rectory at Upham, near Winchester, where he was baptized on 3 July 1683. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated...
.
Spence wrote an essay on Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
's translation of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
in 1726 which gave rise to a friendship between Spence and Pope. In 1727 Pope published his comments on the second part of Spence's essay.
Later life
Spence was elected as the Oxford Professor of PoetryOxford Professor of Poetry
The chair of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford is an unusual academic appointment, now held for a term of five years, and chosen through an election open to all members of Convocation, namely, all graduates and current academics of the university; in 2010, on-line voting was allowed....
on 11 July 1728, holding the post for maximum term allowed (ten years). In the same month he was given the New College living of Birchanger
Birchanger
Birchanger is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located northeast from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire and is northwest from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Uttlesford and in the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, but continued to live in Oxford when not travelling abroad.
Recommended by Alexander Pope, Spence became a travelling companion of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, on a Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
lasting from December 1730 to July 1733. In 1731, while Spence was abroad, his Account of Stephen Duck
Stephen Duck
Stephen Duck was an English poet whose career reflected both the Augustan era's interest in "naturals" and its resistance to classlessness....
was published. On his return to Oxford he lectured and made mundane contributions to poetry collections marking royal weddings, births, and deaths. In 1736 he published An Account of Lord Buckhurst and an edition of Gorboduc
Gorboduc
Gorboduc was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was married to Judon. At an old age, he became senile and his sons, Ferrex and Porrex, feuded over who would take over the kingdom...
.
Spence was a companion to John Morley Trevor in his tour of the Netherlands, Flanders, and France between May 1737 and February 1738, and between September 1739 and November 1741 travelled in Italy with Henry Pelham-Clinton
Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne
thumb|right|"The Return From Shooting" by [[Francis Wheatley |Sir Francis Wheatley]] depicting The Duke of Newcastle, his friend Colonel Litchfield and the Duke's gamekeeper, Mansell along with four Clumber Spaniels....
. While touring, Spence frequently wrote letters to his mother, which he later edited for publication but never published.
On 4 June 1742 Spence became Regius Professor of Modern History
Regius Professor of Modern History (Oxford)
The Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford is an old-established professorial position. The first appointment was made in 1724...
and exchanged Birchanger for Great Horwood
Great Horwood
Great Horwood is a small village and is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England with a population of about 1025 people . It is about five miles ESE of Buckingham, six miles WSW of Milton Keynes....
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, which he visited each year and distributed charity. Around 1742 he gave up his fellowship at New College and settled with his mother in London and often visited Alexander Pope.
After much work, Spence published Polymetis as an illustrated folio in February 1747. He had first thought of such a work during his first visit to Italy and used much of the material he had collected there, intending to demonstrate the relationship between the works of ancient artists and of Roman poets. The work was criticsed by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
in his 1766 work, Laokoon, which subsequently adversely affected its standing.
In 1748 Henry Pelham-Clinton gave Spence the use of a house he owned at Byfleet
Byfleet
Byfleet is an inland island village forming a suburb of Woking in Surrey, England. It is in the east of the borough between the River Wey and the River Mole, and is within the M25 motorway....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, which Spence and his mother moved into. Having designed Birchanger's garden along the lines of Pope's garden in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, and planting extensively at Great Horwood, as well as designing gardens and making notes for friends London, Spence further explored his interest in landscape gardening at Byfleet - developing the 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) estate as a ferme ornée
Ferme ornée
The term ferme ornée as used in English garden history derives from Stephen Switzer's term for 'ornamented farm'. It describes a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming. During the eighteenth century the original ferme ornée was Woburn Farm, made by...
. Though making extensive notes and translating Jean Denis Attiret
Jean Denis Attiret
Jean Denis Attiret was a French Jesuit painter and missionary to China.Jean Denis Attiret studied art in Rome and made himself a name as a portrait painter. While a Jesuit novice, he did paintings in the Cathedral of Avignon and the Sodality Chapel....
's account of the Emperor of China
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
's gardens, Spence left his gardening treatise, Tempe, unfinished. His translation of Attiret was published in 1752 under the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
of "Sir Harry Beaumont", which he also used for Crito, published in 1752, and Moralities, published in 1753.
In 1752-3 Spence published accounts of Robert Hill (tailor) and Thomas Blacklock
Thomas Blacklock
Thomas Blacklock was a Scottish poet.He was born near Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, of humble parentage, and lost his sight as a result of smallpox when six months old. He began to write poetry at the age of 12, and studied for the Church...
, and promoted a subscription edition of Blacklock's poems. In 1758, Spence travelled with James Dodsley
James Dodsley
-Life:Dodsley was born near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire in 1724. He was probably employed in the shop of his prosperous brother, Robert, by whom he was taken into partnership—the firm trading as R. & J. Dodsley in Pall Mall—and whom he eventually succeeded in 1759....
to visit Blacklock in Scotland, and en-route, visited William Shenstone
William Shenstone
William Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.-Life:...
at The Leasowes
The Leasowes
The Leasowes is a 57 hectare estate in Halesowen, historically in the county of Shropshire, England, comprising house and gardens....
. Spence had his work Parallel in the Manner of Plutarch printed at Horace Walpole
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors,...
's Strawberry Hill Press
Strawberry Hill Press
The Strawberry Hill Press was established on 25 June 1757 at Strawberry Hill, by the house's owner, Horace Walpole. He called it the Officina Arbuteana, and many of the first editions of his own works were printed there. The first works printed at Strawberry Hill, on 8 August 1757, were two odes...
in 1758, in order to raise money for Hill. In 1753 Spence provided notes for an edition of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
written by Joseph Warton
Joseph Warton
Joseph Warton was an English academic and literary critic.He was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England, but his family soon moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. There, a few years later, Joseph's younger brother, the more famous Thomas Warton,...
, and in 1768 edited the Remarks on Virgil by Edward Holdsworth, the authors being friends and Old Wykehamists.
Spence was installed as a prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
of Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
on 24 May 1754, a posting on the generosity of the Bishop of Durham, Richard Trevor
Richard Trevor (bishop)
Richard Trevor was an English prelate, Bishop of St David's from 1744 to 1752 and Bishop of Durham from 1752 until his death.-Life:...
. Spence continued to live at Byfleet and spent more than the minimum time required for his prebendal duties of three weeks' residence at Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. In Durham, he not only began to improve the garden of his prebendal estate, but also those of his neighbours, the bishop and the Earl of Darlington
Earl of Darlington
Earl of Darlington is a title that has been created twice, each time in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first time was in 1722 for the Baroness von Kielmansegg, half-sister1 of King George I. She was created Baroness Brentford at the same time...
, Henry Vane
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington PC was an English peer, the son of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard.On 2 September 1725, he married Lady Grace Fitzroy, daughter of Charles Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Southampton and they had seven children.Vane was Whig MP for Launceston from 1726 to 1727, St Mawes...
, sometimes spending weeks at a time travelling to landscaped gardens where his advice had been sought.
Spence suffered a mild stroke during his annual journey north in June 1766, and made his will at Sedgefield
Sedgefield
Sedgefield is a small town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It has a population of 4,534.Sedgefield has attracted particular attention as the Member of Parliament for the wider Sedgefield constituency was the former Prime Minister Tony Blair; he was the area's MP from 1983 to 2008,...
, Durham, on 4 August 1766. On 24 March 1767, Spence sold the copyrights, including those on his unpublished works, to James Dodsley for £100. On 20 August 1768 Spence was found lying face down in the shallow ornamental waters of his garden at Byfleet and was buried four days later at St Mary's, Byfleet.
Works
Spence's published works works include An Essay on Pope's Odyssey (1726) and Polymetis (1747). Spence's unpublished works include his edition of travelling letters, notes for a gardening treatise, notes for a biographical history of English poetry, and his anecdotes, which include tales about Alexander PopeAlexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
and other literary figures such as John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, , was a physician, satirist and polymath in London...
, Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, and Stephen Duck
Stephen Duck
Stephen Duck was an English poet whose career reflected both the Augustan era's interest in "naturals" and its resistance to classlessness....
.
Further reading
- Wright, Austin, Joseph Spence: A Critical Biography. Chicago, Illinois, University of Chicago. 1950.