Frederick Spurrell (2 August 1824 – 23 February 1902) was an Anglican priest and archaeologist.
Early life and education
Frederick Spurrell was born at 23, Park Street in Southwark at a time when his father, Charles Spurrell (1783–1866), was employed by Barclay, Perkins & Co. as a senior manager at the nearby Anchor Brewery. His mother, Hannah Shears (1790–1882), was the daughter of the London copper merchant James Shears. In the 1830s the family moved to Anchor Terrace on Southwark Bridge Road.[1]
Spurrell was appointed rector of Faulkbourne, Essex, in 1853, where he remained until his retirement in 1898, having been made a surrogate in the Diocese of St Albans in 1894. In 1886 he commissioned Arthur Blomfield to restore the parish church.
Spurrell married his cousin, Frances Gray (1827–1892), at Newhaven on 16 February 1854. Frances's father, John Gray (1790–1826), had founded the Gray and Dacre Brewery in West Ham, Essex, and her mother, Lydia Shears (1794–1855), was the youngest daughter of the copper merchant James Shears.
They had two sons (one stillborn) and three daughters. Their surviving son, the Rev. Charles Henry Spurrell, was for many years as Organising Secretary of the National Society for Promoting Religious Education and later served as Rector of Meesden, Hertfordshire, from 1911 to 1923.