Robert Sanders (writer)

Robert Sanders (1727–1783), pseudonym Nathaniel Spencer, was a Scottish hack writer in London.

Robert Sanders
Born1727 (1727)
Died24 March 1783(1783-03-24) (aged 55–56)
Pen nameNathaniel Spencer
NationalityBritish

Life

The son of Thomas Sanders, he was born at Breadalbane, Scotland, and was apprenticed to a comb-maker. He taught himself some Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and taught in schools in the north of England.[1]

About 1760 Sanders came to London, and took to hack writing. A begging letter of 1768 mentions a wife and five young children. He haunted the London coffee-houses: the New England, St. Paul's, and New Slaughter's.[1]

Sanders was a self-created LL.D., who quarreled with booksellers and patrons. He died of a pulmonary disorder, on 24 March 1783.[1]

Works

Compilations by Sanders included:[1]

  • The Newgate Calendar, or Malefactor's Bloody Register (1764), which came out in numbers, and was republished in five volumes.
  • Editorial work on the History of the Life of Henry II (1769 edition) by George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton
  • The Complete English Traveller, or a New Survey and Description of England and Wales, containing a full account of what is curious and entertaining in the several counties, the isles of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey … and a description of Scotland (1771, weekly part publication, reissued under the pseudonym of Nathaniel Spencer). This work largely relied on John Ray, Daniel Defoe, Thomas Pennant, and similar authors.,
  • The Christian's Divine Library, illustrated with Notes, (two volume 1774, reissue after part publication; known as Southwell's Bible, appearing as it did as by Henry Southwell, LL.D., rector of Asterby, Lincolnshire, who lent his name for a fee.
  • The Lucubrations of Gaffer Graybeard, containing many curious particulars relating to the Manners of the People in England during the Present Age; including the Present State of Religion particularly among the Protestant Dissenters, (1774, 4 vols., anonymous). It satirised leading London nonconformist ministers, such as John Gill and Thomas Gibbons.

He left a chronological work unfinished.[1]

Notes
  1. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Sanders, Robert" . Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Sanders, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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