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Nathaniel Spencer (1772)

Saturday 31st July, 2010

In 1772 Nathaniel Spencer produced a book entitled “The Complete English Traveller”. In it he describes Wigan in the following complimentary way:

“The next place we visited was Wigan, pleasantly situated on the small river Dowglass, over which there is a good stone bridge. It is a considerable town, about half a mile in length, and extremely populous...”

“The streets are paved with small pebbles, and the church is a most magnificent gothic structure.”

“...the houses in general are extremely neat. As it lays on the high road to Lancaster, Carlisle, and other parts of the north, there are several good inns, and the people are hospitable and polite.”

The reference to the streets being paved with pebbles is interesting. John Leland writing in 1550 also mentions that Wigan's streets are “paved”, but does not state the nature of the paving.

Like most visitors Spencer was impressed with “All Saints Church”, although it must be mentioned that the church was rebuilt in the mid nineteenth century so Spencer would have seen a different structure.

It seems, that in 1772, Wigan was still a pleasant place in which to live. There are signs, however, of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Spencer writes:

“...the great manufactory carried on by the inhabitants in making blankets, checks, rugs, and coverlids. Coals are in great plenty here, and there are many forges for making of iron, that brings considerable sums of money to the inhabitants.”

It seems that already Wigan had many textile mills and coal mines.

Spencer was impressed by the quality of cannel coal, describing it as “the best in the universe”. He also mentions Wigan's famous burning wells.

While in this area he visited Haigh. He doesn’t mention the hall but he seems to have been very impressed by the view:

“In the neighbourhood of Wigan, is a village, called Haigh, situated on a lofty mountain, from whence, in, a clear day, a person may see the Isle of Man; and some parts of twelve different counties.”

Is this an exaggeration or was the air cleaner then?

Nathaniel Spencer AKA Robert Sanders

I must admit it took me a long time to find any biographical details of Nathaniel Spencer. Then, by chance, I stumbled upon the fact that “Nathaniel Spencer” is a pen name. His real name is Robert Sanders.

He was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in about 1727. His education seems to have consisted mainly of evening studies but even so he appears to have gained quite considerable knowledge in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, mathematics and history.

After spending seven years as an apprentice comb maker and working as an usher in various schools in northern England he moved to London where he began a career as a writer.

His various writing projects included compiling criminal biographies, correcting George Lyttelton's “History of the Life of King Henry II”, an annotated edition of the Bible known as “The Universal Family Bible”, a satire on dissenters named “The Lubracations of Gaffer Graybeard” as well as “The Complete English Traveller” in which he describes Wigan.

He seldom used his real name in his publications – possibly because of his lack of conventional education. As we have already seen he wrote “The Complete English Traveller” under the pseudonym Nathaniel Spencer. For “The Universal Family Bible”, he used the name of a rector named Henry Southwell DD. “The Lubracations of Gaffer Graybeard” was written anonymously.

Spencer made very little money from his literary efforts. A bookseller said he was:

“...one of the sons of misfortune, who, with a share of learning that might have entitled a less voluminous writer to a name among the literati, never emerged from obscurity.”

Robert Sanders, AKA Nathaniel Spencer, was impoverished when he died of a lung complaint in 1793.

Read the full text of Spencer's description of Wigan here.