Author: Spratley, Thomas
Biography:
SPRATLEY, Thomas (1803-39: ancestry.co.uk)
In his address to subscribers, “To the Public,” prefixed to The Vindication and Warrior (1830), he states that “The subsequent pages contain no satirical allusions to any individuals in the Town or Parish of Chesham.” If he was a resident of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, he was probably the Thomas Spratley baptised on 20 Mar. 1803 at St. Mary’s Chesham, the eldest of four sons of Richard Spratley, a butcher, and his wife Martha Glinester, who had married in Chesham in 1800. Nothing is known of his education or of his life. He died of “derangement with fever”on 23 June 1839, aged 36, with his occupation recorded as “Writing Clerk.” Mary Spratley, possibly an aunt or sister-in-law, was present at his death. He was buried at his local church, St. Mary’s. He does not appear to have married. The Vindication and Warrior was printed at nearby Aylesbury and is noteworthy for its defence of Catholics and its attack on “infidels, democratical societies, deists and atheists, that are injurious to the civilized community” (Preface [ii]) and on the followers of the radical William Cobbett (q.v.) whom he termed “Cobbetalians.” He ranked Catholics higher in the hierarchy of Christians than dissenters: “Are not Catholics superior to Arians, Freethinking Religionists, and Unitarians? This is too mean a comparison. I consider these little better than infidels . . . ” (Preface [ii]). (ancestry.co.uk 24 May 2024; findmypast.co.uk 24 May 2024; GRO death cert.) AA