Description

Memoir Of Thomas Spencer Hardcover. Full Leather Binding . ( see condition details below ) 4.25" x 6.75" 360 pages. Lacks the title-page. About 200 years old. The life of Thomas Spencer ( 1791 - 1811 ), the son of a weaver and a teenage, independent preacher in England. He first preached in public at Collier's End, near Hertford , at the age of sixteen years. The sermon excited so much attention that he was invited to preach in the neighbouring villages and at Hertford. He died tragically at just 20 years old. Condition Binding wear. Some loss of spine leather. The covers remain well attached. Lacks the front endpapers and lacks the title-page . Some pages are worn at the edges, some corner-creases, etc. Worn condition, but about 200 years old. Carefully Packed for Shipment to the Buyer . --------------- Biographical Information : Thomas Spencer (1791–1811) was an English Congregational minister. The second son of a worsted-weaver, Spencer was born at Hertford on January 21, 1791, and lost his mother at the age of five. He had to leave school and help his father in his business when 13 years old; about 18 months later he was apprenticed for a short time to a glover in The Poultry, in the City of London. While there he was introduced to Thomas Wilson, treasurer of the Hoxton Dissenters' Training College for Ministers. He was admitted there in January 1807, after a year's preparation at Harwich, during which he studied Hebrew, and made an abridgment of John Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon. In June 1807 Spencer first preached in public at Collier's End, near Hertford, at age 16; and was invited to preach in the neighbouring villages and at Hertford. When barely 17 he was allowed to appear in the pulpit at Hoxton, against the rules. He became a popular preacher in the neighbourhood of London, and in December 1808 preached at Lady Huntingdon's chapel at Brighton. On January 10, 1809 he addressed large congregation from Rowland Hill's pulpit in Surrey Chapel. Having visited Liverpool in the summer of 1810, Spencer on September 26th. accepted an offer of the pastorate of Newington chapel there. He entered on his duties in February 1811, and on June 27th was ordained in the chapel in Byrom Street. At first he preached from 65 to 75 minutes; later, under medical advice, he limited his discourses to three-quarters of an hour. A new chapel, with accommodation for 2,000 people, was built for him, with the foundation-stone laid in April. Spencer was drowned while bathing in the sea near the Herculaneum Pottery , Liverpool , England , on August 5, 1811. The tide was high, the current was strong, and the rocks lining the shore were slippery and treacherous. He was buried on the 13th of August, at Liverpool. Many funeral sermons and elegies were published. An elegy by James Montgomery was appended to the Memoirs of Spencer written by his successor at Liverpool, Thomas Raffles. An engraving by Blood, accompanied four Poems (1811) on his death by Ellen Robinson. Twenty-one Sermons by Spencer were published by the Religious Tract Society in 1829, another following in 1830.