Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sporley, Richard
SPORLEY or SPORTE, RICHARD (d. 1490?), historian, became a monk of Westminster about 1430. He wrote a collection of annals, of which extracts have been preserved in a sixteenth-century copy made by J. Jocelin (Cotton MS. Vit. E. xiv, 260; also in Harl. 692, f. 198). The entries run from 1043 to 1483. He wrote also a history of Westminster from its foundation, for which he used Sulcard [q. v.] and other old authorities. He carries his collection of charters to the reign of John. The manuscript containing this work also supplies another on the abbots and priors of Westminster, which appears to be an enlargement of the work of Prior John Flete [q. v.]; it ends in 1386 (Cotton. MS. Claud. A. viii. f. 16; cf. Flete's MS. in Westminster Chapter library).
[Dart, Widmore, and Dugdale all cite from the Cotton. MS. Claud. A. viii. in their histories of Westminster.]