Bradford Hundred People: Rev Edward Spencer
Wingfield, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Monument in St Mary’s church, Wingfield erected by his pupils
Rev Edward Spencer had been the Rector of St Mary’s, Wingfield for 43 years when he died on 9th February 1819 in his 80th year. He was succeeded as Rector by his son Thomas, who died in 1842 at 68. Besides his duties at the church Edward ran a small boarding school in the big Rectory house next to the church. Among his pupils were the playwright and actor Daniel Terry (c1780-1829) and Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859), the author of “Confessions of an English opium eater“. De Quincey, who had been removed from King Edward School, Bath by his mother, was not very impressed by the teaching he received from Rev Spencer.
Spencer greatly enlarged the Rectory house next to the church in the 1790s. It has been a private house since 1969