Family and Education

b. 16 Aug. 1738, 2nd s. of the Hon. Charles Compton. educ. Westminster 1746. m. (1) 23 July 1757, Jane (d. 26 Nov. 1767), da. and h. of Henry Lawton of Northampton, 1s. 1da.; (2) 16 May 1769, Anne, da. and h. of Culpeper Hougham, linen-draper in St. Paul’s Churchyard, s.p.  suc. bro as 8th Earl of Northampton 18 Oct. 1763.

Offices Held

Ensign 2 Ft. Gds. 1756; capt. 31 Ft. 1757; retired 1760.

Groom of the bedchamber Nov. 1760-Apr. 1763; recorder, Northampton Dec. 1763- d.; ld. lt. Northants. 1771- d.

Biography

Spencer Compton was returned unopposed for Northampton in 1761. He did not receive Newcastle’s parliamentary whip in Oct. 1761; was classed by him as ‘contra’ in the list of 13 Nov. 1762; is in Henry Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries; and was marked ‘pro’ by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763, but succeeded to the peerage before the opening of the session. There is no record of his having spoken in the House.

Extravagant and in debt even before the Northampton election of 1768, he was very nearly ruined by it. Some six years later he ‘went to Switzerland for the rest of his life, partly for economy and partly because of his health’1; and died at Berne 7 Apr. 1796.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

• 1. Marquess of Northampton, Comptons of Compton Wynyates, 199.