Henry Spencer, of Badby

Henry Spencer, of Badby was not the son of Thomas le Despenser, Esq. and Joanne le Despenser

Henry "of Badby" Spencer

• Born about 1392 / between 1400 - 1408, of Badby, Northamptonshire, England
• Died after 1469 / about 1476 in Badby, Northamptonshire, England
• Parents: (probably) Thomas Spencer, of Badby and his wife Matilda
• Husband of Isabel (unknown) — married before 1438 in Northamptonshire, England

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Biography

Last updated 23 January 2025

This Spencer family was of Badby, in Northampshire, in this generation and before. They are not related to the Despenser family. That's been proven as a forged pedigree from a corrupt herald, some generations later. Henry Spencer is the first of the famous Spencer family for whom there are records. As such, he is the start of the line that goes through the Earls Spencer to HRH Diana, Princess of Wales.

Family

Henry Spencer's wife was called Isabel. She died Between 4 Mar 1478 and 3 Mar 1479. She has been seen as the daughter of Henry Lincoln, but evidence is lacking.

Stott (citation details below) says that they married "before 1444, when together they joined the Guild of the Holy Cross." But Stott also estimates the birth of their son John as 1438, so presumably they were married in that year or before.

Henry Spencer and his wife Isabel had children born at Badbury, Northamptonshire:

1. John Spencer, b. Abt 1438; d. 4 Jan 1497, Hodnell, Warwickshire, England (Age ~ 59 years). Married 1) Anne Empson 2) Jane Graunt
2. William Spencer, b. Abt 1444: was of Radbourne, Warwickshire, England d. Bef 1496 (Age ~ 51 years). Married Elizabeth Empson.
3. Thomas Spencer, b. Abt 1452: of Badby, Northamptonshire, England d. Between 30 Jun 1493 and 15 Sep 1496, Badby, Northamptonshire, England (Age ~ 41 years). Married Margaret.
4. daughter # 1 living in or near Badbury
5. daughter # 2 living in or near Badbury

They are not known to have had a son Nicholas.

Diana, Princess of Wales, Princess of Wales is Henry Spencer, of Badby's 16th great granddaughter. relationship path

Notes

https://www.americanancestors.org/browse/publications/the-register/...

NEHGR Vol. 174, Summer 2020

Our lead article is Ancestry of Agnes Spencer, Wife of Thomas Higginson of Berkeswell, Warwickshire, Ancestor of Nine American Immigrants, Cousin to Diana, Princess of Wales, Sir Winston Churchill, President George Washington, and Others. Building on his earlier Higginson article, author Clifford L. Stott shows how all these people were descended from three Spencer brothers of Warwickshire and Badby, Northamptonshire, born in the mid-fifteenth century. The immediate descendants of the three brothers are traced in the text, and a two-page chart shows how those named in the article’s title and U.S. Presidents Washington, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, and the two Bushes are descended from one of the three Spencer brothers. As the author’s major articles have shown, finding a network of distantly related American immigrants is not surprising.

The article begins with “The Despencer Forgery.” In 1595 a successful Spencer descendant paid a corrupt herald to grant him arms based on the arms of the extinct noble Despencer family. This Spencer family clearly was not descended from the Despencer family, as proved in print in 1901. However, the Spencers rose to gentry status, several men were knighted, and Robert Spencer (1570–1627), ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sir Winston Churchill was granted a title.

Disputed Origins

WARNING - there appear to be TWO Henry Spencers, each married to Isabel Lincoln in Badby. See http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~riss/baldwin/bw/sp_engl_im...

• Henry Spencer, was born about 1392 in the village of Badby, Northamptonshire, two miles south of the town of Daventry. He may have been the son of Thomas Spencer and Joan, who may have been the daughter of Richard Pollock of Kent. However his real parentage has been obscured by the claims made in late Tudor times seeking to tie the Spencer family with the medieval Despencers.
• Parents seen as Joanne le Despenser and Thomas le Despenser, Esq.
• Parents seen as Lady Dorothy le Despenser & Thomas le Despenser, Esq.
• Wrong generation to be this Henry Spencer: Henry Spencer (b. c 1365, d. 1416), son of Thomas Spencer, of Badley, Northamptonshire, England, was born circa 1335. He married an unknown person circa 1361 at Badley, Northamptonshire, England. He died after 1435 [sic]; son of Nicholas and Joan Pollard Spencer. Nicholas was born about 1332 and Joan about 1338.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badby There are no monuments, gravestones nor descendants of the family that we can identify in Badby village today. The 17th century parish records record births, baptisms, marriages and burials of a few members of the family. The records are now housed at the Northamptonshire Records Office.[10]
• http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-02/moa-01.html#Anchor-Despencers-47857
• This image does not seem correct for this Henry Spencer: link
• Note: Henry G. Spencer. Will dated 1476. Married Isabel, daughter of Henry Lincoln (Badby, Northamptonshire, England).

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http://www.badbyhistory.org.uk/bhistory.html

With the decline of the Monastic life in the 14th century it became the practice for Evesham Abbey to lease out land in Badby. The Spencer family rented the “Manor” from 1451–71 and may well have carried out renovations marked on the plan. In 1530 they still held a lease on part of the Manor lands. This family is now associated with Althorpe.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_family

Spencer family

• .... The family is descended in the male line from Henry Spencer (died c. 1478), is a descendant of the cadet branch of the ancient House Le Despencer. The descent of the family from the Medieval Despencers has been challenged, especially by Horace Round in his essay The Rise of the Spencers. The Spencers were granted a coat of arms in 1504 (Azure a fess Ermine between 6 sea-mews’ heads erased Argent) which bears no resemblance to that used by the family after c. 1595, which was derived from the Despencer arms. Round believed that the Despencer descent was fabricated by Richard Lee, a corrupt Clarencieux King of Arms.[1] The Spencer claim to be descendants of the Despencer family can be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
• .... A close relative of the said Henry Spencer (died c. 1478) was John Spencer, who in 1469 had become feoffee (feudal lord) of Wormleighton in Warwickshire and a tenant at Althorp in Northamptonshire in 1486. His nephew John Spencer (died 1522) first made a living by trading in livestock and other commodities and eventually saved enough money to purchase ....

References

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spencer-210 cites
• From A Short History of Badby by A.E.Evens c: 1940.
• Entered by Michael Lechner, March 7, 2012.
• Quoted in "Fact and Fiction in Family History". Additional quotes from Horace Round's debunking of the Spencer pedigree can be found at Ancestor Hunting, the first chapter in Mists of Antiquity.
• "Despencer" in The Complete Peerage, Vol. 4 (1916), p. 239.
• The Ancestor (Nov. 1902), p. 189.
• Don Steel, Fact and Fiction in Family History.
• (My notes: Here again we can find no connection with Henry of Badby, Northamptonshire.
• Family Origins, Chapter VII, The Rise of the Spencers, by John Horace Round, publisher and date are not known to me at this time. pps 279-329.
• Author quoted: "(compare my article on "The Origin of the Thynnes" in Genealogist (N.S.) XI, 193. It is, for instance, quite possible that he found a HENRY SPENCER obtaining a lease of tithes at Badby in 20 Hen. VI. (1441-1442)"
• (My notes: There again is the only mention of Henry and Isabel Spencer in his volume.
• Genealogy of the Four Spencer Brothers, by Flora Clarke, under Michael, part 1
• Genealogy of the Spencer Family, by Albert H. Spencer, 1956
• The Spencers of Bedfordshire, England and East Haddam, Connecticut", by H.R. Spencer, Duluth, Minnesota, 1927
• Ancestors of Ossian Hatch Brainerd and Mary Hubbard Goodrich" by Berwyhn Brainerd Thomas, Mason County Historical Society, Shelton, Washington, 1991
• 'pencer, J.T. Spencer, E.W. & Spencer, V. (1993). A Comparative Analysis of Genealogical Records for Ancestors of the Four Spencer Brothers in England. 17(3).
• Genealogical Bulletins, no. 4, "The Spencer Family", LDSFHL Film 0496485
• The Spencers and Their Name, by B.F. Spencer, 1914
• Descendants of Amuary Raoul D'Albetot, George R. Spencer.
• Genealogy of the Spencer Family.
• dau. and co-heir Henry Lincoln (Badby, Northamptonshire; mother unknown.
• Note: m. ABT 141
• 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 The Baronettage of England, 1720.
• :B.L.B. (n.d.) _____ "Hartford, Conn. Times"
• Descendants of Amuary Raoul D'Albetot.
• https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Henry_Spencer_%281%29 cites
• Jack Taif Spencer and Edith Woolley Spencer. The Spencers of the Great Migration, Vol. I p. 56.
• http://nielsenhayden.com/genealogy-tng/getperson.php?personID=I2160... cites
• Clifford L. Stott, "Ancestry of Agnes Spencer, Wife of Thomas Higginson of Berkeswell, Warwickshire, Ancestor of Nine American Immigrants, Cousin to Diana, Princess of Wales, Sir Winston Churchill, President George Washington, and Others." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 174:199, Summer 2020; 174:330, Fall 2020.
• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~riss/genealogy/baldwin/bw/sp_engl_im... cites
• Ancestors of American Presidents, 1995, Gary Body Roberts
• https://myshgs.org/about-shgs/
• 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Evesham', in A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2, ed. J W Willis-Bund and William Page (London, 1971), pp. 112-127. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol2/pp112-127 [accessed 27 January 2021].
• http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-11-147.pdf cites
• For the Spencer pedigree, see Fetherston, John, The Visitation of the County of Warwick in the Year 1619, (London: Harleian Society, 1877), Vol. XII, pp. 284-5 at: Archive.Org (disproved Ancestry)
• There is considerable confusion concerning the testator’s immediate family. However much of what Collins has to say is confirmed in the will below. See Collins, Arthur, The Peerage of England, (London: R. Gosling and T. Wotton, 1735),Volume II, Part I, pp. 226-7 at: GoogleBooks
• http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-11-147.pdf “The testator (1497) John Spencer had an elder brother, William Spencer, and a younger brother, Thomas Spencer, both of whom, according to the will below, predeceased the testator.”
• https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~george/genealogy/b118.htm
• https://ntgen.tripod.com/bw/sp_engl.html
• Stotts, Clifford. “Ancestry of Agnes Spencer, Wife of Thomas Higginson of Berkeswell, Warwickshire.”NEHGR 174 (Summer 2020): 199-215 (Part 1). The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) < AmericanAncestors$ > ; Page 205. < AmericanAncestors > (see document attached)
• The 1619 herald’s visitation of Warwickshire provides many earlier generations, but that ancestry rests upon a fraudulent pedigree in the College of Arms created by Richard Lee, a corrupt herald, who manufactured a link between the Spencers of Badby and the baronial le Despenser family. …”
• http://nielsenhayden.com/genealogy-tng/getperson.php?personID=I2160...
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spencer-210 (as of 18 January 2025, has errors)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13869901/henry-spencer (as of 18 January 2025, has errors)