Henry, Bishop of London, the youngest son of Spencer, Earl of Northampton, was born in 1632. After the restoration of Charles II. he became cornet in a regiment of horse; but soon afterwards quitted the army for the church. He was made Bishop of Oxford in 1674, and in the following year translated to the see of London. Having been admitted into the privy-council, he was intrusted with the education of the two princesses Mary and Anne. For his firmness in refusing to suspend Dr Sharp, whose vindication of the doctrine of the Church of England against Popery had rendered him obnoxious to the court, Bishop Compton was himself suspended by James II., but was restored at the Revolution, when he and the Bishop of Bristol constituted the majority for inviting a king to fill the vacant throne. He performed the ceremony of the coronation of William and Mary, was afterwards appointed one of the commissioners for revising the liturgy, and laboured with great zeal to effect a reconciliation between dissenters and the church. During the reign of Anne he was again sworn of the privy-council, and was one of the commissioners for the union of England and Scotland. Bishop Compton died in 1713.

Compton, Spencer-Joshua-Abeyne, Marquis of Northampton, was born in 1790, and received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge. On quitting the university he was returned to parliament for the town of Northampton, and distinguished himself by the independence and liberality of his opinions. He succeeded to the family title in 1828, when residing in Italy, where he exerted himself on behalf of the patriots of Lombardy and Naples. On the death of Lady Northampton he returned to England and resumed his place in parliament. He was elected President of the Royal Society after the retirement of the Duke of Sussex from that office, and became known to the literary world through the pages of The Tribute, a work which he afterwards edited for the benefit of the family of its founder. He was known also as a lover of science, and especially attached to mineralogy and geology. The Marquis of Northampton died January 17, 1851.