Tyne Folk

LOCKDOWN SONG - PETER BURNHAM

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Thomas Spence Words & music by Ed Pickford

1750 was the year - the place Newcastle Quay
Thomas Spence was born to stir the aristocracy
Common ownership of land was Thomas Spence's Plan
Words he wrote in his own hand he called 'Rights of Man'

Thomas went down to South Shields town and then to Marsden Bay
Met with a man of some renown who was living his own way
By the sea and living free, no landlord's servile slave
He had gained his liberty within a limestone cave

Spence was overjoyed to see the essence of a plan
An overthrow of tyranny, equality of man
Passion spurred his fevered hand where storm-tossed seagulls call
Wrote these words to those he damned upon that cave's bare wall

Chorus: {To follow each of following verses}
Ye landlords vile - who rob with guile
And levy where ye can
Your law and lawyers I'll defy
I'll fight for rights of man

Those who seek to innovate and change the status quo
How soon the state will isolate and treat them as the foe
Legals stoats in ermine coats will raise a hue & cry
Such weasel throats condemned poor Spence in Newgate Gaol to lie

Chorus

This brave man's thoughts they still survive, reposing now in print
Waiting there to be brought alive like sparks within a flint
Prison doors with iron claws may cage a body's will
Man-made laws suppress a cause but thoughts they'll never kill

Chorus

More than a brace of centuries have passed since Spence's birth
River still rolls on by the quays controlled by moon & Earth
Thomas Spence and Thomas Paine - two men both of one clan
They raised Cain and sought no gain, they fought for rights of man

T. Spence.
7 MONTHS IN IMPRISONMENT FOR HIGH TREASON. 1794

Thomas Spence image

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Thomas Spence

In 1775 he submitted a paper on land tenure to the Philosophical Society, entitled "The Real Rights of Man". This was inspired by a lawsuit between the freemen and the corporation of Newcastle over the use of the common land in the town. He believed that the land had been stolen from the people and should be returned to them. The society expelled him. He hawked his paper about like a halfpenny ballad around the streets of Newcastle.

In the 1780s Spence visited "Jack the Blaster", a farmer and a miner who had been ill-used by his landlords. To escape their tyranny he had created his own dwelling by digging out a cave at Marsden Rocks (which later became the location of the Marsden Grotto Restaurant).

Spence, inspired by his story, was possibly the first to use the phrase "RIGHTS OF MAN" when he wrote on the cave's wall :

"Ye landlords vile, whose man's peace mar, Come levy rents here if you can; Your stewards and lawyers I defy, And live with all the RIGHTS OF MAN".

He set up a bookstall in Chancery Lane in 1792 and was subsequently arrested for seditious libel and imprisoned for a short time.

In 1793 he started a penny weekly called "Pig's Meat". In 1794 he was imprisoned for 7 months without trial on a charge of High Treason.

Peter Burnham

Thomas Spence's Plan:

  • The end of aristocracy and landlords;
  • All land should be publicly owned by 'democratic parishes', which should be largely self-governing;
  • Rents of land in parishes to be shared equally amongst parishioners;
  • Universal suffrage (including female suffrage) at both parish level and through a system of deputies elected by parishes to a national senate;
  • A 'social guarantee' extended to provide income for those unable to work;
  • The 'rights of infants' to be free from abuse and poverty.

Thomas Spence image