consecrated bishop of Madras, and remained in India for twelve years. In 1842 he published a ‘Journal of a Visitation to the Provinces of Travancore and Tinnevelly in 1840–41.’ In 1845 he also published ‘Journal of a Visitation Tour, in 1843–4, through Part of the Western Portion of the Diocese of Madras.’ Besides places in his own diocese, he visited during this tour Poona, Ahmednaggar, and Bombay. In the autumn of 1845 Spencer visited the missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society, and published his ‘Journal’ in the following year, accompanied with charges delivered at St. George's Cathedral, Madras, and at Palamcotta, and appendices containing statistical tables. In 1846 he also published ‘A Brief Account of the C.M.S.'s Mission in the District of Kishnagur, in the Diocese of Calcutta.’ In the diocese of Madras he established three training colleges for native converts.
In 1849 he returned to England invalided. On 4 Oct. 1852 he was appointed commissary or assistant to Richard Bagot [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells. On 10 May 1853 he resigned on account of the views on the real presence held by Archdeacon Denison, examining chaplain to Bagot, and of Denison's refusal ‘to allow him in any way to examine the candidates for holy orders.’ An angry correspondence between Spencer and Denison followed, which ended in the latter's declining ‘any further communication by word or writing.’
In 1860 Spencer was appointed chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and next year became rector of Walton-in-the-Wolds. He died on 16 July 1866 at Edge Moor, near Buxton.
Spencer married, in 1823, Harriet Theodora, daughter of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse and sister of John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton [q. v.], by whom he had issue two sons and three daughters.
[Gent. Mag. 1866, ii. 281; Foster's Alumni Oxon. and Peerage, 1882; Crockford's Clerical Directory; Letter to Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1853; Archdeacon Denison's Notes of My Life, pp. 225–31.]
SPENCER, GERVASE (d. 1763), miniature-painter, began life as a servant in a gentleman's family. Having a taste for drawing, he obtained leave to copy a miniature portrait of one of his master's family, which was so successful that his master encouraged and assisted him to pursue his studies as an artist. Eventually Spencer was able to practise for himself, and attained such a pitch of excellence that he became one of the fashionable miniature-painters of the day. He worked both on ivory and in enamel, and his miniatures are carefully and artistically finished. He exhibited occasionally with the Society of Artists. Spencer was acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted his portrait in the act of painting. Spencer made an etching of this himself, and a few other etchings by him are known. He died in Great Marlborough Street, London, on 30 Oct. 1763. He left a daughter, Mrs. Lloyd, at whose death in 1797 Spencer's remaining works and collections were sold by auction by Hutchins in King Street, Covent Garden.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Propert's Hist. of Miniature-Painting.]
SPENCER, HENRY le, (d. 1406), bishop of Norwich. [See Despenser, Henry le.]
SPENCER, Sir JOHN (d. 1610), lord mayor of London, was the son of Richard Spencer of Waldingfield in Suffolk. He came to London, and was so successful as a merchant that he became known as ‘Rich Spencer.’ His trade with Spain, Turkey, and Venice was very large (State Papers, Spanish, 1568–79 p. 590, Dom. 1591–4 p. 59), and he was accused in 1591 of engrossing, with two other merchants, the whole trade with Tripoli (ib. p. 67). This lends some justification for the charge made in a little book ‘written by D. Papillon, Gent,’ that Spencer became by the practice of merchandise ‘extraordinary rich, but it was by falsifying and monopolising of all manner of commodities’ (Vanity of the Lives and Passions of Men, 1651, p. 48). The same writer relates the story of a plot by a pirate of Dunkirk, with twelve of his crew, to carry off Spencer and hold him to ransom for over 50,000l. Leaving his shallop with six of his men in Barking Creek, he came with the other six to Islington, intending to seize the merchant on his way to his country house at Canonbury, which Spencer had purchased of Thomas, lord Wentworth, in 1570. The plot was frustrated by Spencer's detention that night on important business in the city. Queen Elizabeth is said to have visited him at Canonbury in 1581 (Nichols, Hist. of Canonbury House, 1788, p. 12).
Spencer was a member of the Clothworkers' Company, and was elected alderman of Langbourn ward on 9 Aug. 1587. He served the office of sheriff in 1583–4, and that of lord mayor in 1594–5. During his shrievalty he was engaged in hunting down papists in
