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 pains to recover, in a form fit for publication, the remaining three books, in which effort, so far as regards the eighth book, he seems to have been largely successful, no doubt owing to the co-operation of Henry Jackson, a scholar and afterwards fellow of Corpus. Jackson was also employed in collecting and editing, under Spenser's guidance, various sermons by Hooker, including the celebrated sermon on justification [see art. , and Works, preface, 1888].

Spenser, no doubt, took great pains in superintending the editing of Hooker's various works. But it has sometimes been further said that he took a considerable share in the composition of them. This statement, which has obtained currency through its repetition in Wood's ‘Athenæ Oxonienses’ (sub ‘John Spenser’), was originally due to one Hamlett Marshall, who seems to have been Spenser's curate, and in 1615 published a sermon by him, dedicated to John King, then bishop of London. In the dedication to this sermon he makes this statement: ‘This of mine own knowledge I dare affirm, that such was his humility and modesty in that kind’ (namely, in withholding his works from publication), ‘that, when he had taken extraordinary pains, together with a most judicious and complete divine in our church, about the compiling of a learned and profitable work now extant, yet would he not be moved to put his hand to it, though he had a special hand in it, and therefore it fell out that tulit alter honores.’ That Spenser would often communicate with Hooker on the work on ‘Ecclesiastical Polity,’ which the latter writer was preparing, possibly make suggestions, or have special points of difficulty referred to him for advice or information, is very probable, but that he made any substantial contribution to the composition of the book, without receiving due acknowledgment from the author, is a supposition as wholly repugnant to the character of Hooker as it is contradictory of the entire tone and spirit of the address in which Spenser introduces his friend's work (, ''Hist. of Corpus Christi College'', p. 173).

Spenser married a sister of George Cranmer [q. v.], one of Hooker's favourite pupils. According to Wood, Spenser's portrait was painted ‘on the wall in the school gallery’ at Oxford (Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 190).

[Fowler's Hist. of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, pp. 143–4, 170–5; Wood's Athenæ Oxon.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, Clarendon Press edition of 1816, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 504–5; Hooker's Works, Clarendon Press edition of 1888, editor's preface. No mention of Spenser's matriculation or admission into Corpus Christi College is extant in the university or college registers.]

 SPERLING, JOHN (1793–1877), lieutenant royal engineers, son of Henry Piper Sperling of Park Place, Henley-on-Thames, and afterwards of Norbury Park, Surrey, by Sarah Ann, his wife (d. 28 May 1850), daughter of Henry Grace, esq., of Tottenham, Middlesex, was born at Tottenham on 4 Nov. 1793. After passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and spending some time in the ordnance survey of Great Britain, Sperling received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 14 Dec. 1811. He joined his corps at Chatham in March 1812, and was promoted to be first lieutenant on 1 July 1812.

In December 1813 Sperling embarked at Ramsgate with the expedition under Sir Thomas Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) [q. v.], to assist the Dutch against the French, whose garrisons had been recently much reduced in strength. He was one of nine officers of royal engineers under the commanding royal engineer Lieutenant-colonel (afterwards Lieutenant-general Sir) James Carmichael Smyth [q. v.] They landed at Williamstadt on 18 Dec. On 31 Dec. Sperling was at Staandaarhuyten making a bridge of boats, and in the early part of January 1814 he restored a tête-de-pont which protected the passage of the river. On 11 Jan. 1814 Sperling, with his sappers, was attached to a column sent to assist the Prussians in dislodging the French from Hoogstraaten. Sperling went to Breda on 21 Jan. to arrange for accommodating a store depôt for the bombardment of Antwerp. On 2 Feb. he advanced his engineer stores to Merxem, and during the night commenced the construction of a mortar battery, which was armed and opened fire on Antwerp on the afternoon of the 3rd. He did duty in the trenches until the 6th, when the siege was raised. The British troops went into cantonments, and Sperling, after taking his engineer stores to Breda, was sent to Tholen, in the neighbourhood of Bergen-op-Zoom, to report on the fortifications there.

On 8 March an attempt was made to storm Bergen-op-Zoom with four columns. Headed by Sperling, No. 1 storming column effected an entrance by surprise at the watergate and seized the guard, the French officer surrendering his sword to Sperling, who kept it as a trophy. The party then swept the ramparts for some way, but not being supported by the main body of their own, and encountering a large force of the enemy, it was