Catalogue description J.R.SPRATLING: ANTIQUARIAN PAPERS AND NOTES

The collection consists of local history notes, manuscripts and poetry.

For published works by Spratling see the local history catalogue. Additional obituaries and cuttings are in the Stoke Newington cuttings sequence at the Archives Department.

Spratling, J R, 1854-1934, teacher and local historian

Open

Acc 1986/35

Date of deposit: Unknown, circa 1934 at Stoke Newington Library Transferred to Archives Department prior to 1983

Deposited by: J.R.Spratling, by the terms of his will

J.R.Spratling was born in 1854, and lived as a boy of 14 in Dalston. He came to Stoke Newington in 1882 as a teacher working at the Cowper Street Middle Class Corporation Schools. He also took an interest in the North London Guardian, which had just begun to publish, and he was its editor for the thirty four years of its later existence. He also contributed a weekly column, 'Jottings' under the pseudoname 'Giltspur' and produced regular antiquarian articles. He taught during the day, edited and wrote at night and spent Saturdays and holidays researching at Somerset House and the Public Record Office. He also produced some works of fiction. After the First World War and the demise of the North London Guardian (which ceased publication after Easter 1916), Spratling continued his research and wrote a series of articles for the Hackney Gazette. As Editor of the North London Guardian, he had not felt free to stand for municipal office, but was co-opted on to Stoke Newington Council from 1916 to 1922, after which he retired from all except the Library Committee, which he served on until his death in 1934.

Most of the records in this list were originally incorporated into the library sequences at Stoke Newington Reference Library.

The papers in series D/F/SPR/A were included with the main Spratling material, but were added after it came into Stoke Newington Library, probably by the Librarian, George Preece. As they include material associated with Spratling, they have been retained with the deposited records rather than having been transferred to the borough records.

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