He was descended from the Spurrell family of Thurgarton, Norfolk. He was born on 2 August 1824 at 23, Park Street, Southwark. At the time, his father worked for Barclay and Perkins Limited., who then owned the Anchor Brewery, Southwark.
Later the family moved to Anchor Terrace, Southwark Bridge Road, when it was built in the mid-1830s.
Corpus Christi College. King"s College London.
He was ordained deacon in 1847 by the Bishop of Chichester and priest the following year, when began his work as Curate of Newhaven, Sussex. In 1848 he was among a small party that called on Louis-Philippe of France at Newhaven after the latter had escaped the 1848 revolutions in France. In 1849 he was the first person to be appointed Chaplain to the British Residents at Stockholm, Sweden.
On his return to England, he served as Curate of Barcombe, Sussex, from 1850 to 1853.
From 1853 to 1898 Frederick Spurrell was Rector of Faulkbourne, Essex, where he is remembered for restoring the church in the 1880s.
He was also interested in archaeology and published a number of papers on the subject. He was a member of the Royal Archaeological Society (on whose Council he served) and the Essex Archaeological Society, and an honorary member of the Sussex Archaeological Society.
