Noah Webster was an interesting character. He didn’t like fancy spelling.He felt it ruined language.
In his own words:
… the present orthography of leather, feather, weather, stead, wealth, mould, son, ton, wonder, worship, thirst, &c. is corrupt; having been vitiated during the dark ages of English literature, under the Norman princes. The true orthography from the first Saxon writings to the 12th century, was lether, fether, wether, sted or stede, welga, mold, suna, tunna, wundor, wurthscipe, thurst.
Vitiated: made ineffective, invalid, devalued.
Talk about holding a grudge.