George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer
George III | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister | Pitt the Younger |
| Preceded by | John Pitt |
| Succeeded by | Earl St Vincent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 September 1758 Whig |
| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Parents | |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer,
Background and education
Lord Spencer was born at
His sister
Political career
Lord Spencer was Whig
Other public positions
Lord Spencer was also High Steward of St Albans from 1783 to 1807, Mayor of St Albans in 1790, President of the Royal Institution from 1813 to 1825 and Commissioner of the Public Records in 1831. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1780[citation needed] and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1785.[citation needed] He was appointed to the Order of the Garter in 1799.[citation needed] On 18 February 1793, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Northamptonshire.[4]
Book collecting
Spencer was known for an interest in literature, particularly early examples of printing. He was the instigator and first President of the exclusive, bibliophilic Roxburghe Club founded in 1812.
Spencer's tens of thousands of volumes included the most nearly complete collection of
From 1789 to 1818 Earl Spencer employed Tomaso d'Ocheda, an Italian, as his librarian; he had until 1789 been the librarian of Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna.[8]
When
Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin, a Church of England clergyman and bibliographer, wrote the first of many bibliographical works: Introduction to the Knowledge of Editions of the Classics (1802), which brought him to the notice of Earl Spencer, to whom he owed important aid in his bibliographical pursuits. The rich library at Althorp was thrown open to him; he spent much time there and in 1814–1815 published Bibliotheca Spenceriana. As the library was not open to the public, the information was found useful, but as its author was unable even to read the characters in which the books he described were written, it was marred by errors, as were almost all his productions. In 1818 Dibdin was commissioned by Earl Spencer to buy books for him on the continent, an expedition described in his sumptuous Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821). He also wrote Aedes Althorpianae, an account of Althorp giving many details of the library.
Family
Lord Spencer married
- John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer (1782–1845)
- Lady Sarah Spencer (1787–1870), who married William Lyttelton, 3rd Baron Lyttelton, and had issue
- Hon. Richard Spencer (1789–1791) died in infancy.
- Captain Hon. Sir Robert Cavendish Spencer(1791–1830), died unmarried at sea.
- Hon. William Spencer (born and died 1792), died in infancy.
- Lady Harriet Spencer (born and died 1793), died in infancy.
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- Lady Georgiana Charlotte Spencer (1794–1823), married Lord George Quin, son of Thomas Taylour, 1st Marquess of Headfort, and had issue.
- Vice-Admiral Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer (1798–1857)
- Very Reverend Hon. George Spencer (later known as Venerableon 20 February 2021
Lady Spencer died in June 1831, aged 68. Lord Spencer survived her by three years and died in November 1834, aged 76, at Althorp, and was buried in the nearby village of Great Brington on 19 November of that year.
Spencer jacket
The Spencer, a type of short jacket from which the UK military mess jacket is derived, is named after George Spencer,[10] reportedly because he had a tail-coat adapted after its tails were burned by coals from a fire.[11]
Coat of arms
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Ancestry
| Ancestors of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- Spencer Gulf, Australia
References
- ^ "Wimbledon Pages 519-540 The Environs of London: Volume 1, County of Surrey. Originally published by T Cadell and W Davies, London, 1792". British History Online. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
- ^ "Spencer, George John, Viscount Althorp (SPNR776GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b Burke, John (1833). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley. p. 466.
- ^ "No. 13708". The London Gazette. 27 September 1794. p. 987.
- Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 67–86.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 26 December 2015.
- ^ E. G. Duff, ed. Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. 3 vols, Manchester: J. E. Cornish, 1899.
- ^ Lister (1989), p. 69.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ "Spencer, n.2, 2". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 2 April 2015. OED states that the jacket is named after the earl but does not suggest why.
- ^ "George John, Second Earl Spencer". Althorp. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [better source needed]
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer
- Lister, Anthony (1989) "The Althorp Library of Second Earl Spencer, now in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester: its formation and growth". (published in: Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester; vol. 71, no. 2 (summer 1989), pp. 67–86 )
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