SPENCER, John Poyntz, Visct. Althorp (1835-1910), of 27 St James’s Place, London and Althorp Park, Northants.

Nephew of the renowned Viscount Althorp from the Grey ministry, Spencer sat very briefly as a Liberal for Northamptonshire South in 1857 before succeeding his father to the peerage. Better known as the ‘Red Earl’ for his later work in Ireland under the Gladstone administrations, Althorp’s election to parliament, aged 21, demonstrated that eighteenth-century models of aristocratic representation remained sustainable well into the mid-Victorian period.

Styled Viscount Althorp following his father’s succession to the peerage in 1845, Spencer attended Harrow in 1848 before commencing a ‘nobleman’s degree’ at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1854. He started to take an active interest in politics after joining the debating society during his last term at Harrow, and whilst at Cambridge – where he also developed a passion for riding – his father, Frederick Spencer (1798-1857), began grooming him as a potential candidate for Northamptonshire South. With a general election pending towards the end of 1856, Althorp’s father advised him to develop stock responses to potential questions from electors, particularly over church rates and education.1P. Gordon, The Red Earl: The Papers of the fifth Earl Spencer, 1835-1910 (1981), i. 36-40. Althorp graduated from Trinity in January 1857 and on 7 March, two days after the government had been defeated by Cobden’s censure motion over Canton, he announced his intention to stand for the division, aged 21.2P. Gordon, ‘Spencer, John Poyntz (1835-1910)’, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com; Northampton Mercury, 21 Mar. 1857.

Althorp successfully rode the coattails of his uncle’s reputation to provide Northamptonshire South’s Liberals with a rare moment of electoral cheer in 1857. He ran a highly organised, well-funded campaign during which he confirmed his support for Palmerston’s conduct over the Chinese war and his willingness to consider alterations to the franchise. Although he informed electors that he was a ‘staunch Protestant’, he spoke in favour of the maintenance of the Maynooth grant and the partial abolition of church rates on the hustings, which he confessed were the first he had ever attended. Althorp’s status and deep election chest provided the formula for success that had eluded the division’s Liberals over the previous two decades, and he was returned top of the poll ahead of the two Conservative incumbents.3Northampton Mercury, 21 Mar., 28 Mar., 4 Apr., 1857; PP 1857 (332), xxxiv. 366; Gordon, Red Earl, i. 40-1.

He made no recorded speeches during his short Commons career and served on no committees, but his voting activity revealed an independent streak fitting for a country gentleman. He attended 54 divisions, slightly above average for the session, and sided with the ministry most of the time, notably in the majority that defeated Berkeley’s ballot motion, 30 June 1857. However, he divided in the minorities for Dillwyn’s aggravated assaults bill, 19 May; Locke King’s bill to equalise the county and borough franchises, 10 June; Hardy’s sale of beer bill, 10 June; and was in the majority against the government’s proposal to allow six bodies to be buried in one grave, 7 July 1857. On 18 July he embarked from Liverpool on a three month tour of North America, missing the final six weeks of the session. Writing to his father from Montreal he expressed regret that his travel plans had forced a parliamentary absence, and commended as ‘statesmanlike’ Russell’s decision to support Palmerston over the Indian mutiny.4Viscount Althorp to 4th Earl Spencer, 4 Sept. 1857: Gordon, Red Earl, i. 44. Within a fortnight of his return to England on 14 December, Althorp’s father died and he succeeded to the peerage.

As the fifth Earl Spencer he provided £350 a year for Liberal registration in Northamptonshire South until 1869, when he withdrew his support after what he viewed had been a decade of organisational failure by the local association.55th Earl Spencer to Horace Seymour, 9 May 1869: Gordon, Red Earl, i. 71. He was an active member of the upper house during the 1860s, and after refusing an offer from Robert Lowe to lead the Adullamites in the Lords in 1866, was rewarded with the lord lieutenancy of Ireland by Gladstone in 1868. He remained a key member of Gladstone’s subsequent ministries, as lord president and then lord lieutenant of Ireland between 1880 and 1885, lord president again in 1886, and then as lord of the admiralty between 1892 and 1895. Following Gladstone’s death he supported Campbell-Bannerman, and became leader of the Liberal opposition in the Lords in 1902. Had it not been for a stroke in October 1905 it is likely he would have led the 1906 Liberal government. Failing health forced his resignation as lord lieutenant of Northamptonshire in 1908 and after suffering a further stroke in July 1910 he died on 13 Aug. 1910. He was buried at Great Brington, Northamptonshire and was succeeded by his half-brother Charles Robert Spencer (1857-1922).6Gordon, ‘Spencer, John Poyntz’, Oxf. DNB. His will was proved at £642,454.7England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, 1910, 245. Peter Gordon has edited a two-volume collection of his personal correspondence, and his family papers are held by Northamptonshire Record Office and the British Library.8Gordon, Red Earl.