# Thomas Spence > Thomas Spence (1750-1814) is all but forgotten today, but at the time of the [[French Revolution]] he was one of the best-known thinkers and activists in the left-wing of the radical democratic movement in England. > > – [[A forgotten revolutionary: Thomas Spence on saving the commons]] > In Red Round Globe Hot Burning, Peter Linebaugh describes him as “the most consistent among the common communists of the 1790s.” His influence continued after his death: in 1817, Parliament banned political clubs that supported his views, making Spenceanism the only political ideology ever banned by name in England. > > – [[A forgotten revolutionary: Thomas Spence on saving the commons]]