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Earl Spencer (title)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Viscount Althorp)

Earldom of Spencer
Coat of arms
Creation date1 November 1765; 260 years ago (1 November 1765)
Created byGeorge III
PeeragePeerage of Great Britain
First holderJohn Spencer, 1st Viscount Spencer
Present holderCharles Spencer, 9th Earl
Heir apparentLouis Spencer, Viscount Althorp
Remainder to1st Earl's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten
Subsidiary titlesViscount Althorp
Viscount Spencer
Baron Spencer of Althorp
SeatsAlthorp
Spencer House

Earl Spencer is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created on 1 November 1765, along with the title Viscount Althorp, of Althorp in the County of Northampton, for John Spencer, 1st Viscount Spencer.[1][2] He was a member of the prominent Spencer family and a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Previously, he had been created Viscount Spencer, of Althorp in the County of Northampton, and Baron Spencer of Althorp, of Althorp in the County of Northampton, on 3 April 1761.[3][2]

The future 6th Earl Spencer was created Viscount Althorp, of Great Brington in the County of Northampton, on 19 December 1905 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[4] Diana, Princess of Wales, was the youngest of three daughters of the 8th Earl Spencer. William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, are grandsons of the 8th Earl Spencer.

Estates and residences

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Country seat

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The family seat is Althorp in Northamptonshire.[2]

Landed estates

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In the 1883 edition of John Bateman's The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer's estates were recorded as spanning 27,185 acres across England, including 16,800 acres in Northamptonshire, 3,392 acres in Warwickshire, 3,017 acres in Hertfordshire, 2,533 acres in Norfolk, 771 acres in Buckinghamshire, 670 acres in Leicestershire, and 2 acres in Surrey, which produced a combined annual income of £46,764.[5]

The Althorp estates continues to include the civil parish of Althorp, in West Northamptonshire, which comprises approximately 13,000 acres (5,300 ha).[a] The family's estate includes significant land holdings in other parts of the country, including the village of North Creake in Norfolk.

London residences

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Spencer House, the principal London residence of the Earls Spencer from the 18th century until the early 20th century

The family owns the freehold of Spencer House at 27 St James's Place in St James's, London. The house was commissioned in 1756 by John Spencer, later 1st Earl Spencer, and his wife Georgiana Poyntz, who required a London residence suitable for entertaining during the social season. Construction continued until 1766, initially under the architect John Vardy and subsequently James "Athenian" Stuart, whose work gave the principal interiors some of the earliest fully developed neoclassical decoration in England.[8] The house is a Grade I listed building.[9]

Successive Earls and Countesses Spencer used Spencer House as their London home and as a setting for political and society entertaining. The house remained in regular family occupation through the 18th and 19th centuries, although from the 1880s the decline in landed income led the Spencers increasingly to let it to private tenants.[8] The 6th Earl Spencer briefly resumed occupation between 1914 and 1916 before offering the house rent-free to the government for wartime use. The 7th Earl Spencer and his family returned in 1923 and undertook alterations intended to restore the State Rooms to a more Georgian appearance, but financial pressures forced the family to leave again in 1926. Spencer House was leased to the Ladies Army and Navy Club from 1927, and the Spencers did not subsequently resume residence there.[8]

Despite ceasing to occupy the house, the family retained ownership. During the Second World War the 7th Earl ordered the removal of a number of original architectural fittings from the State Rooms for safekeeping at Althorp, while the building itself was used by the government.[8] Following several decades of commercial occupation, the lease was acquired in 1985 by the J. Rothschild group of companies, headed by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, which undertook a major restoration of the house and its interiors. The restored Spencer House was formally reopened in 1990 by Diana, Princess of Wales, a descendant of the 1st Earl Spencer.[8] The freehold remains in the ownership of the Spencer family.[10]

Adjoining Spencer House at 28 St James's Place is a late-18th-century house which traditionally served as a dower house associated with the Spencer property and was occasionally used by members of the family as a London residence when Spencer House itself was let.[11]

Coat of arms

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The coat of arms of the family is as follows: Quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third quarters a fret or, over all on a bend sable, three escallops of the first. The crest, emerging from the coronet, is a griffin's head argent, gorged with a bar gemelle gules between two wings expanded of the second. The supporters are: Dexter, a griffin per fess ermine and erminois, gorged with a collar sable, the edges flory-counter-flory, and chained of the last, on the collar, three escallops argent; sinister, a wyvern erect on his tail ermine, collared and chained as the griffin. The motto is Dieu defend le droit (French: God protects the right).[12]

Earls Spencer (1765)

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John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer,
by Thomas Gainsborough

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Louis Frederick John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (b. 1994).

Family tree

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This is a continuation of the Spencer/Spencer-Churchill family tree for the Althorp branch of the Spencers found in the Spencer family article.

Family tree of Spencer family of Althorp

Arms

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Coat of arms of Earl Spencer
Coronet
A Coronet of an Earl
Crest
Out of a Ducal Coronet Or a Griffin's Head Azure gorged with a Bar Gemelle Gules between two Wings expanded of the second
Escutcheon
Quarterly Argent and Gules, in the 2nd and 3rd quarters a Fret Or, over all on a Bend Sable three Escallops of the first
Supporters
Dexter: A Griffin per fess Ermine and Erminois gorged with a Collar Sable the edges flory-counterflory and chained of the last and on the Collar three Escallops Argent; Sinister: A Wyvern Erect on his tail Ermine similarly collared and chained
Motto
Dieu Defend Le Droit (God defends the right)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Sources differ on the exact size of the estate, but most state 13,000 or 14,000 acres. The official website claims 13,000 acres,[6] but Paprocki and others mention 14,000.[7]

References

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  1. ↑ "No. 10562". The London Gazette. 5 October 1765. p. 1.
  2. 1 2 3 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.
  3. ↑ "No. 10092". The London Gazette. 4 April 1761. p. 1.
  4. ↑ "No. 27868". The London Gazette. 29 December 1905. p. 9319.
  5. ↑ Bateman, John (1883). The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Harrison. p. 417. Retrieved 21 September 2026 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ "The Estate". Spencerofalthorp.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Paprocki 2009, p. 31.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "A Short History of Spencer House". Spencer House. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Historic England, "Spencer House (1264952)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 21 September 2026
  10. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". Spencer House. Retrieved 21 September 2026.
  11. ↑ Historic England, "28, St James's Place SW1 (1235756)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 21 September 2026
  12. ↑ Townend, Peter (ed.). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage (103rd ed.). Burke's Peerage Limited. p. 2282.
  13. ↑ Kate Fleming, The Churchills, Viking Press, 1975
  14. ↑ Herman, Eleanor (2005). Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge. Pushed into War, Sold into Marriage: William Morrow. p. 190. ISBN 0060585439.

Sources

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Further reading

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