John Spencer (Lord Mayor of London)

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Sir John Spencer (died 1610) was a successful English merchant and Lord Mayor of London.

Life

He was the son of Richard Spencer of Waldingfield [1] in Suffolk, came to London, and as a merchant was nicknamed "Rich Spencer". His trade with Spain, Turkey, and Venice was substantial, and he was accused in 1591 of engrossing, with two other merchants, the whole trade with Tripoli. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have visited him at Canonbury House in 1581, a property he bought from Thomas Wentworth, 2nd Baron Wentworth in 1570.[2]

Spencer was a member of the

Sir John Hawkins for possession of the Bridge House for the use of the navy and baking biscuits for the fleet.[2]

Spencer kept his mayoralty at his town residence,

Duc de Sully (then M. de Rosny), while ambassador to England, and the youngest son of the Prince of Orange, with Barnevelt and Fulke, who came on a mission from Holland. Towards the close of his mayoralty he asserted the City of London's right, which it was feared the Crown would contest, to freely elect a recorder. Before the close of his mayoralty he received a knighthood.[2]

In May 1609 Spencer refused to contribute to an aid for James I on behalf of the young

St. Bartholomew's Hospital from 1603.[2]

Spencer died, at an advanced age, on 3 March 1610, and his widow survived him only till 27 March. He was buried on 22 March, and Dame Alice on 7 April, in his parish church of

altar tomb monument was placed to his memory.[5] His funeral was on a most sumptuous scale. His fortune was variously estimated at very large sums, and the splendid inheritance is said for the time to have turned the brain of his son-in-law, Lord Compton. Among other estates, he possessed the manors of Brooke Hall, Bower Hall, and Bocking, which he had obtained from the Queen on 1 August, 1599. Spencer left nothing to public purposes.[2]

In Canonbury, a residential square was laid out in 1963 and is named after Sir John Spencer.[6] He, at the time, was Lord Mayor of London and had a country retreat at Canonbury in the early 17th Century. John Spencer Square’s former residents include Labour Party Cabinet Minister Barbara Castle and her husband Ted Castle, journalist and GLC Alderman.[7][8][9]

Family

By his wife, Alice Bromfield, Spencer had an only child, Elizabeth, who in 1598 was sought in marriage by William Compton, 2nd Lord Compton. Spencer strongly disapproved of the match, but Compton's influence at court enabled him to procure Spencer's imprisonment in the Fleet Prison in March 1599 for ill-treating his daughter. The young lady was ultimately carried off by her lover from Canonbury Tower in a baker's basket. The marriage quickly followed, but Spencer gave his daughter no marriage portion. When, in May 1601, his daughter became a mother, he showed no signs of relenting. But some reconciliation apparently took place soon afterwards, it is said, through the intervention of Elizabeth.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ One or other of the two sister villages of Great Waldingfield and Little Waldingfield.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Spencer, John (d.1610)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ Edward Lushington Blackburn (1834). An Architectural and Historical Account of Crosby Place, London: Compiled from Original and Unpublished Sources, with an Appendix of Illustrative Documents and Fac-simile Autographs of Several of Its Ancient Possessors. J. Williams. p. 57.
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26130. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. ^ Minnie Reddan and Alfred W. Clapham (1924). "St. Helen's Bishopsgate: Monuments within the church". Survey of London: volume 9: The parish of St Helen, Bishopsgate, part I. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  6. ^ "John Spencer Square". www.londongardensonline.org.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  7. ^ Brown, Rosemary (Spring 2012). "LOVE'S LABOUR LOST" (PDF). The Canonbury Society. DIAMOND JUBILEE ISSUE.
  8. ISBN 0080245366
    .
  9. ^ "North Cross Route". Roads.org.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
Civic offices
Preceded by Lord Mayor of London
1594–1595 		Succeeded by

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Spencer, John (d.1610)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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