Robert Sanders (1727–1783), pseudonym Nathaniel Spencer, was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

hack writer in London.

Life

The son of Thomas Sanders, he was born at

Breadalbane, Scotland Breadalbane , from Scottish Gaelic ''Bràghaid Albann'' ("upper Alba" or "upland of Alba"), is a region of the southern/central Scottish Highlands. It is a mountainous region comprising the Drainage divide, watershed of Loch Tay; its boundaries a ...

, and was apprenticed to a comb-maker. He taught himself some Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and taught in schools in the north of England. 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. Sanders was a self-created LL.D., who quarreled with booksellers and patrons. He died of a pulmonary disorder, on 24 March 1783.

Works

Compilations by Sanders included: * ''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

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* ''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

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, 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

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and Thomas Gibbons. He left a chronological work unfinished.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Robert 1727 births 1783 deaths Scottish writers People from Perthshire