SPENCER, John II

Although a servant of Humphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham, Spencer’s career is one of almost unrelieved obscurity. On 16 Aug. 1453, during the long prorogation of the first Parliament of which he was a Member, he delivered £20 to the treasurer of the duke’s household for the purchase of oxen. Three years later, on 6 Aug. 1456, he was described as a ‘yeoman’ when he was among a group of trustees, headed by the duke, to whom a London draper, John Wynche, alienated his moveable possessions.1 CCR, 1454-61, p. 169; Acct. Gt. Household Humphrey, 1st Duke of Buckingham (Cam. Soc. ser. 4, xxix), 14. Spencer’s place in the duke’s service is the obvious explanation for his return for Newcastle-under-Lyme to two successive Parliaments. Nothing else is known of him. There is no reason to identify him with the namesake who, in 1431, had been mayor of Congleton (Cheshire), a few miles to the north of Newcastle-under-Lyme, but his origins are no doubt to be sought locally. He was probably a kinsman of Henry Spencer of Barton-under-Needwood, who was described as an ‘esquire’ when in January 1455 he relinquished possession of his goods.2 Staffs. RO, Antrobus mss, D(W)1761/A/3/328; Cal. P. and M. London, 1437-57, p. 181.