Spencer, Robert, Viscount Teviot (1629 -1694)

Robert Spencer was the second son of William Spencer, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, and Penelope, daughter of Henry Wriothesley 3rd Earl of Southampton. Educated at King's College, Cambridge 1646, and the University of Padua 1648, he travelled abroad until 1651. He was Member of Parliament for Great Bedwin in 1660, and for Brackley 1661 1679, a Commissioner of Appeals for regulating the Excise 1662 1689, and Commissioner for the execution of the Office of Lord Privy Seal 1685 1687. He was created Viscount Teviot in the peerage of Scotland 30 October 1685. On 15 July 1669 he was admitted D.C.L. at Oxford, and though he seems never to have matriculated at Oxford, he had rooms in Christ Church in 1675. He married his cousin, Jane, eldest daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Spencer, 4th Baronet of Yarnton in Oxfordshire, but died without issue, when the viscountcy became extinct. A devout Anglican like his friend John Evelyn, he was nicknamed “Godly Robin” by Charles II. His books perhaps passed to his elder brother the 1st Earl of Sunderland and became part of the Althorp Library.