The house was founded in the 15th century by Henry Spencer (died c. 1478), from whom all members descend. In the 16th century, the claim arose that the Spencers were a cadet branch of the older house of Despencer, though this theory has since been debunked, in particular by historian J. Horace Round in his essay The Rise of the Spencers. The Spencers were granted a coat of arms in 1504, consisting of an ermine fess between six sea-mews' heads, but they later abandoned this in about 1595 for a modified version of the Despencer arms. Round argued that the Despencer descent was fabricated by Richard Leigh, a corrupt Clarenceux King of Arms.<ref>Round, pp. 292–309</ref> Citing Round, The Complete Peerage dismissed the alleged Despencer descent as an "elaborate imposture" which "is now incapable of deceiving the most credulous."<ref>The Complete Peerage, vol. 4, p. 259. See also the Nov. 1902 edition of The Ancestor Quarterly, which described the Spencers as "that pushful house of shepherd kings" with a "brand new and more than doubtful pedigree." Sounding a more gentle tone, Don Steel in the March 1996 edition of Soul Search noted sadly that the pedigree forgery "obscures the real achievement of the Spencers of Althorpe. Alone, perhaps among the English nobility, the Spencers owed their riches and their rise not to the favour of a king or to the spoils of monasteries, nor even to a fortune made in trade, but to successful farming."</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Family Lastnames, related to Spencer family (Princess Diana). York, Tudor, Howard, Seymour, Russell, Mattner, Windsor (Mountbatten-Windsor, Capell, Darcy, Manners & Fitzalan.
Rise to wealth
A close relative of Henry Spencer (died c. 1478) was John Spencer, who in 1469 had become feoffee (trustee) of Wormleighton Manor in Warwickshire and a tenant at Althorp in Northamptonshire in 1486. His nephew, Sir John Spencer (died 1522), first made a living by trading in livestock and other commodities and eventually saved enough money to purchase both the Wormleighton and Althorp lands. Wormleighton was bought from Sir William Cope in 1506. The manor house was completed in 1512.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1508, Spencer also purchased the estate of Althorp with its moated house and several hundred acres of farmland.<ref name= 800years>H. Gawthorne/S. Mattingly/G. W. Shaeffer/M. Avery/B. Thomas/R. Barnard/M. Young, Revd. N.V. Knibbs/R. Horne: "The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Great Brington. 800 Years of English History", published as "Brington Church: A Popular History" in 1989 and printed by Peerless Press.</ref> He had grazed sheep here from the 1480s. Impressed by the quality of the land, he eventually bought it and rebuilt the house in 1508.<ref name=spencerofalthorp>Sir John Spencer 1455–1522 Template:Cite web (access date 20 July 2013)</ref> At that time, his estate and mansion in Warwickshire were considerably larger, and the house in Wormleighton was four times the size of Althorp.<ref name="spencerofalthorp"/> In 1511, he made further purchases to acquire the villages of Little Brington and Great Brington as well their parish church of St Mary the Virgin, from Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset.<ref name="800years"/> By putting down roots at Althorp, Spencer provided what was to become a home for the next 19 generations.<ref name="spencerofalthorp"/> In 1519, he was knighted by King Henry VIII, died three years later and was buried in the new family chapel at Great Brington.<ref name="800years"/>
The Spencers rose to opulent prominence during the 16th century. Sir John Spencer's grandson Sir John Spencer (d. 1586) was a Knight of the Shire for Northamptonshire. The Spencers' administration of their Northamptonshire and Warwickshire estates was admired and often emulated by gentlemen all over England. Sheep from their pastures were purchased for breeding and it is probable that the family's material success and production as gentlemen farmers was rarely equalled in the century.<ref name="History of Parliament Online">Sir John Spencer, History of Parliament Online [1] (access date 20 July 2013)</ref>
In the late 16th century, the latter Sir John Spencer's grandson Sir Robert Spencer (1570–1627) represented Brackley in Parliament. In 1601, he was made a Knight of the Garter, and created Baron Spencer, of Wormleighton, in the Peerage of England in 1603. During the reign of King James I he was reputed to be the richest man in England. The humble origins of the Spencers as sheep farmers once caused a heated exchange of words between wealthy yet then upstart Spencers with the more established Howards whose FitzAlan ancestors had been the Earls of Arundel since the 13th century. During a debate in the House of Peers, Lord Spencer was speaking about something that their great ancestors had done when suddenly the Earl of Arundel cut him off and said "My Lord, when these things you speak of were doing, your ancestors were keeping sheep". Lord Spencer then instantly replied, "When my ancestors as you say were keeping sheep, your ancestors were plotting treason."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Robert Spencer, 1st Baron Spencer, was succeeded in his peerage and estates by his eldest surviving son, William. He had previously represented Northamptonshire in Parliament. Two of his sons received additional peerages: His eldest son, Henry (1620–1643), succeeded as 3rd Baron Spencer in 1636 and was created Earl of Sunderland in the Peerage of England in 1643. The younger son, Robert (1629–1694), sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679 and was created Viscount Teviot in the Peerage of Scotland in 1685.
The senior branch of the Spencers (later known as the Spencer-Churchill family) is currently represented by Jamie Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough, direct descendant via the eldest male-line of Sir John Spencer, who was knighted by King Henry VIII in 1519 while the cadet branch of the family, the Spencers of Althorp, who descend via the male-line from the younger son of the 3rd Earl Sunderland, is represented by Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer.
In 1817, George Spencer, 5th Duke of Marlborough, obtained permission to assume and bear the additional surname of Churchill in addition to his own surname of Spencer, in order to perpetuate the name of his illustrious great-great-grandfather. At the same time he received Royal Licence to quarter his paternal arms of Spencer with the coat of arms of Churchill.<ref name=Courtenay>Paul Courtenay, The Armorial Bearings of Sir Winston Churchill Template:Cite web (access date 20 July 2013)</ref> The modern Dukes of Marlborough thus originally bore the surname "Spencer". The double-barrelled surname of "Spencer-Churchill" as used since 1817 has remained in the family to this day, though some members have preferred to style themselves merely "Churchill". The 7th Duke of Marlborough was the paternal grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), the British prime minister. The latter's widow, Clementine (1885–1977), was created a life peeress in her own right as Baroness Spencer-Churchill in 1965.
The family seat of the Dukes of Marlborough is Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Most Spencer-Churchills are interred in the churchyard of St Martin's Church, Bladon, a short distance from the palace; only the Dukes and Duchesses are buried in the Blenheim Palace chapel.
The 9th Earl Spencer, then Viscount Althorp, married Victoria Lockwood, a British fashion model, in 1989. They divorced in 1997. He married his third wife Karen Gordon, a Canadian philanthropist, in 2011.
George Spencer (1799–1864), son of the 2nd Earl Spencer.<ref name=catencyc>Template:Cite web</ref> He was first an Anglican priest, converted to Catholicism to become a Roman Catholic priest as Father Ignatius, worked as a missionary and is now a candidate for beatification.
Many members of the Spencer family have also been knights or ladies of the Order of the Garter. The following is a list is of all Spencer members of this order, across all branches of the family, along with their year of investiture.
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