Walter Spencer-Stanhope (4 February 1749/50 – 10 April 1821), of

Horsforth Horsforth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, five miles north-west of Leeds city centre. Historically a village within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 18,895 ...

and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, was a British industrialist (whose family fortune had been made through the iron trade) and a politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

for various constituencies between 1775 and 1812.

Background and education

Spencer-Stanhope was born Stanhope, only surviving son of Walter Stanhope, one-time merchant of Leeds, and his second wife Ann Spencer, daughter of William Spencer of

Cannon Hall Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and High Hoyland some 5 miles (8 km) west of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it ...

. Church records show that he was born on 4 February 1749 (Old Style, corrected now to 1750) and baptized on 9 March of the same year. He was educated at

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational private day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination. For the sixth form admission is based on GCSE results. The school gives means-tested ...

and went up to

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

, and later studied law at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 1775, Stanhope inherited Cannon Hall from his uncle, John Spencer, and changed his name from Stanhope to Spencer-Stanhope by Royal licence.

Political career

Spencer-Stanhope was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

in 1775,

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill (Hindhead, Surrey), Beacon Hill, they comprise ...

in 1780,

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

in 1784, for

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

in 1800, and for

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

in 1802. He was a close supporter of

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

and friend of

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780 ...

, the anti-slavery campaigner, after meeting whom he became a religious

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Business career

As well as their interests in establishing the

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

industry in the late seventeenth century, the Spencer family were largely responsible for establishing the

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

industry in the area between

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

for the next 120 years.

Family

Spencer-Stanhope married Mary Winifred, daughter of Thomas Babington Pulleine, on 21 Oct 1783, in Tynemouth, Northumberland, England. They had eight sons and seven daughters. Their son John Spencer-Stanhope was a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

and the father of Walter Spencer-Stanhope and John Roddam Spencer Stanhope. Spencer-Stanhope died at his house in Langham Place, London, on 10 April 1821 (after a long illness) and was buried at the parish church in Cawthorne, South Yorkshire, England. His wife died on 16 December 1850 and was buried with him. In a family record, she recorded the births of their 15 children."The letter-bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer Stanhope", compiled by A.M.W. Stirling, 1913
1) Walter Spencer Spencer-Stanhope was born on 26 Aug 1784 (baptized at Hosforth Chapel). He died on 26 Dec 1832.
2) Marianne Spencer-Stanhope was born in London (Grosvenor Square) on 23 May 1786.
3) John Spencer-Stanhope was born in London (Grosvenor Square) on 27 May 1787. His Godparents were the Earl of Chesterfield, Sir Mathew White Ridley, and Lady Glyn.
4) Anne Spencer-Stanhope was born at Cannon Hall on 7 Sep 1788. Her Godparents were the Countess of Burford, Mrs Marriott and Mr Pulleine.
5) Catherine Spencer-Stanhope was born at Cannon Hall on ?September 1789 and was baptized on 18 Oct 1789. Her Godparents were Mrs Bigge, Mrs Anne Shafto and Colonel Glyn. She died on 20 Nov 1795 (of a Complaint in the Throat or Lungs) and was buried at Cawthorne Church. Her mother kept "a silken tress like spun sunshine" and labelled it "My dear little Catherine's hair, cut off the morning I lost her, November 20th, 1795."
6) Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope was born on 5 Nov 1790. Her Godparents were Mrs Ord of Morpeth, Mrs Pulleine and Mr John Collingwood. She died on 15 Apr 1801 (of a truly agonizing but mercifully short illness reported simply as Obstruction) in Grosvenor Square, London, and was buried in St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road.
7) Edward Spencer-Stanhope was born on 30 Oct 1791. His Godparents were Mr Collingwood, Mr Fawkes of Farnley and Mr Glyn.
8) William Spencer-Stanhope was born on 4 Jan 1793. His Godparents were Admiral Roddam, Mr Carr Ibbotson and Mrs Beaumont. He went "to Sea in the Ocean to join Lord Collingwood off Cadiz" in March 1806.
9) Thomas Henry Spencer-Stanhope was born on 14 May 1794. His Godparents were Lady Carr Glyn, Collingwood Roddam, Esquire, and Ashton Shuttleworth, Esquire. He died 3 Apr 1808 ("after a long and painful illness") and was "buried with Eliza in St James's Chapel in Hampstead Road". Known as HENRY to the family, the many family letters written during his illness clearly demonstrate how his mother denied herself to all her acquaintance and never left his side.
10) Charles Spencer-Stanhope was born on 14 Oct 1795. His Godparents were Colonel Beaumont, James Shuttleworth, Esquire, and Mrs Elizabeth Roddam. He was the Vicar of All Saints parish church at Cawthorne (a family living) for 52 years, until he died on 29 Oct 1874.
11) Isabella Spencer-Stanhope was born on 20 Oct 1797. Her Godparents were Mrs Roddam, Mrs Smith of Dorsetshire and Mr Smyth of Heath.
12) Philip Spencer-Stanhope was born on 25 Jan 1799. His Godparents were Mr Edwyn Stanhope, the Rev. John Smith of Westminster, and Lady Augusta Lowther.
13) Frances Mary Spencer-Stanhope was born in London (Grosvenor Square) on 27 Jun 1800. Her Godparents were Samuel Thornton, Esquire, Mrs Greame of Bridlington and Mrs Marriott of Horsmonden, Kent.
14) Maria Alicia Spencer-Stanhope was born at Cannon Hall on 4 Sep 1802. Her Godparents were the Rev. D. Marriott, Mrs Henry Pulleine of Carlton and Mrs Morland of Court Lodge, Kent.
15) Hugh Spencer-Stanhope was born on 30 Sep 1804. His Godparents were Edward Collingwood, Esquire, Mr Smith of Dorsetshire and Lady Elizabeth Lowther of Swillington.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer-Stanhope, Walter 18th-century births 1822 deaths

Walter Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...