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Aubrey George Spencer (8 February 1795 – 24 February 1872)''DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF JAMAICA''
The Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
(London, England), Monday, 26 February 1872; pg. 6; Issue 30645
was the first bishop of the
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
Diocese of Newfoundland and
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...
(1839–1843). He was also
bishop of Jamaica The Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a diocese of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. It was originally formed as the Diocese of Jamaica, within the Church of England, in 1824. At that time the diocese included the ...
. His brother George Spencer became Bishop of Madras. He is from the
Spencer family The Spencer family is an aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. From the 16th century, its members have held numerous titles including the dukedom of Marlborough, the earldoms of Sunderland and Spencer, and the Churchill barony. Two prom ...
.


Life

Aubrey George Spencer was born in London, England on 8 February 1795. He was the son of William Spencer (1769–1834), younger son of
Lord Charles Spencer Lord Charles Spencer PC (31 March 1740 – 16 June 1820) was a British courtier and politician from the Spencer family who sat in the House of Commons between 1761 and 1801. Background Spencer was the second son of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke o ...
, and a great-grandson of
Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, (22 November 170620 October 1758), styled as The Honourable Charles Spencer between 1706 and 1729 and as The Earl of Sunderland between 1729 and 1733, was a British soldier, nobleman, and politician f ...
; his German mother Susan being a Countess of the Holy Roman Empire. Spencer was educated at St Albans School, and privately in Greenwich prior to joining the navy. His health failed him and he was discharged and decided to become a priest. Spencer went to study at
Magdalen Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...
and was made deacon in 1818. He was ordained a priest in 1819 by the Bishop of Norwich. Spencer's first assignment was officiating as a curate at Prittlewell, Essex, before becoming a
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization (registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Pa ...
missionary to Newfoundland. There he served at
Ferryland Ferryland is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the Avalon Peninsula. According to the 2021 Statistics Canada census, its population is 371. Seventeenth century settlement Ferryland was originally established as a station for migratory fis ...
and Trinity Bay before the cold undermined his health and he moved to
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...
. Having been appointed Archdeacon and Rector of Paget and Warwick, he published a collection of his sermons, acquired a Lambeth D.D. and turned down in 1829 the offer of the Archdeaconry of Newfoundland. In 1839, he readily accepted when, perhaps helped by his aristocratic and Whig connections, he was offered the bishopric of Newfoundland. He was consecrated Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, alongside John Strachan, who was the first Bishop of Toronto. Their consecration took place at the chapel in Lambeth Palace of 4 August 1839. William Howley, being archbishop of Canterbury, with Bishops
Charles James Blomfield Charles James Blomfield (29 May 1786 – 5 August 1857) was a British divine and classicist, and a Church of England bishop for 32 years. Early life and education Charles James Blomfield was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the eldest son (and ...
of London,
William Otter William Otter (23 October 1768 – 20 August 1840) was the first Principal of King's College, London, who later served as Bishop of Chichester. Early life William Otter was born at Cuckney, Nottinghamshire on 23 October 1768, the son of Do ...
of Chichester, and John Inglis of Nova Scotia participated in Spencer's consecration.


Bishop of Newfoundland

In Newfoundland, he increased the number of clergy by offering stipends guaranteed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, built schools and new churches, and laid the foundation stone for a cathedral. He reorganised the church into rural deaneries, revived the Diocesan Church Society to raise money, and formed a Theological Institute to produce a local ministry. To increase the number of clergy he ordained schoolmasters belonging to the Newfoundland School Society. He obtained control of that society by becoming a Vice-President, licensing its schoolmasters (if not ordained) to act as lay readers, and appointed the Rev. T. F. H. Bridge, his ablest assistant, to act as its local Superintendent. He described the society, in its 21st Annual Report, as "the greatest bulwark of the Protestant faith in that dreary and benighted land". Spencer was described by Prowse, the 19th century Newfoundland historian, as "an evangelical of the old school of Wilberforce and Bickersteth." He had little time for dissent, and the Methodists were quick to attack his making the Newfoundland School Society an auxiliary of the church, accusing him of having "high and exclusive claims", and of influencing the younger generation and "infusing into their minds the common notions of the high church party". They were surprised that Spencer's Anglicanism, although low church, did not favour them. Had they read his sermon preached in St John's, they would have realised that not only was he very anti-Tractarian and anti-Catholic, he also insisted on the Church of England having its ministry from the Apostles and condemned those who rejected forms and undervalued the sacraments. Part of Spencer's legacy to his successor,
Edward Feild Edward Feild (7 June 1801 at Worcester, England – 8 June 1876 at Hamilton, Bermuda) was a university tutor, university examiner, Anglican clergyman, inspector of schools and second Bishop of Newfoundland. Early years Born in Worcester, E ...
, was thus rather poor relations with the Methodists.


Final years

He was once again troubled by ill health and in consequence obtained his translation to Jamaica where he was bishop until 1855. He then retired to England, to Torquay, and he occasionally assisted the ageing Bishop of Exeter, Phillpotts. His last publication, ''A Brief Account of the Church of England, its Faith and Worship: as shown by the Book of Common Prayer,'' published in 1867, was circulated in Spanish and Italian by the Anglo-Continental Society, and was a decidedly Protestant work. It declared that the reformers had aimed to maintain
apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...
, that the Church of England was merely a part or branch of the catholic Church of Christ, that all other Christians in England were in error, that Auricular Confession was inadmissible in the Church of England, that there should be no adoration of the consecrated bread and wine at communion, and that a branch of the Church without bishops was still a church. It was very traditional and very Protestant. His long illness caught up with him and in 1872 Spencer died.


See also

* List of people of Newfoundland and Labrador


References

*Methodist Missionary Society, Reports and letters, 1789 – 1875. Especially NA Box13E. *Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. *Pascoe, G. Digest of SPG Records, 1701–1892. 5th Ed. London, 1895. *Prowse,D.W. A History of Newfoundland. 2nd Ed. London, 1896. *Reports of Newfoundland Schools Society, 1823 onwards.
A Sermon Preached at Lambeth Palace, on Sunday, August 4, 1839, before the Most Rev. His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishops of London, Chichester, and Nova-Scotia at the Consecration of the Lord of Bishop of Newfoundland, and the Lord Bishop of Toronto and Published by the Command of His Grace the Lord Archbishop
by Edward Scobell (London: J. Hatchard, 1839)


External links


Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
from
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

Aubrey George Spencer
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Aubrey George 1795 births 1872 deaths 19th-century Anglican Church of Canada bishops 19th-century Anglican bishops in the Caribbean Anglican bishops of Newfoundland Anglican bishops of Jamaica People from St Albans People educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire
Aubrey Aubrey is traditionally a male English given name. The name is from the French derivation Aubry of the Germanic given name Alberic / Old High German given name Alberich, which consists of the elements ALF "elf" and RIK "king", from Proto-Germa ...
Archdeacons of Bermuda British expatriate bishops