A major influence on the radical Thomas Spence, James Murray was a preacher who used the pulpit and print to promote new ideas. As well as publishing works on religious subjects, Murray was also a grammarian whose book The Rudiments of the English Tongue was published in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in about 1771.

In this episode Rachel Hammersley joins me in Newcastle’s Lit and Phil to discuss Murray’s influence in the region at a critical moment in its political and cultural development.

Rachel Hammersley is Professor of Intellectual History at Newcastle University (UK).