JOHN, a learned theologian, was born at Bocton-under-Blean, in Kent, in the year 1630. From the grammar-school of Canterbury he was removed to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge, where he was entered on the 25th of March 1645. Having taken the degree of A.B. in 1648, and of A.M. in 1652, he was chosen a fellow in 1655. In 1660 he preached a sermon before the university, and during the same year it was published under the title of *The Righteous Ruler*. He afterwards published a learned and curious work, entitled *A Discourse concerning Prodigies*. To the second edition, corrected and enlarged, he added *A Discourse concerning vulgar Prophecies*, Lond., 1665, 8vo. During the same year, he took his degree of D.D. In 1667, he was presented by his college to the rectory of Landbeach, and on the 3rd of August elected master of the college. About a month after his election, he was preferred by the king to the archdeaconry of Sudbury, in 1672 to a prebend of Ely, and in 1677 to the deanery of that church. In 1669 he had published a Latin dissertation concerning Uriah and Thummim. But his most elaborate work is *De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus, et carum Rationalibus, libri tres*, Cantab., 1685, 2 tom. fol. An edition, with the author's additions and improvements, was published at Cambridge in 1727; and several editions, one by Pfaff, was printed on the continent. Dr Spencer died on the 27th of May 1695, in the 63rd year of his age. He was a great benefactor to his college, to which he bequeathed an estate that had cost him L.3900. He married Hannah, the daughter of Isaac Pullen of Hertford, and had a son and a daughter, who both died before their father.

Spencer, John Charles, third Earl, better known by the title of Lord Althorp, which he bore throughout the greater part of his life, was the eldest son of the second Earl Spencer, and of Lavinia, daughter of the Earl of Lucan, and was born on the 30th of May 1782. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, where he received the honorary degree of M.A. in 1802. At the age of 22 he became member for Oakhampton, and in 1806 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the University of Cambridge. He was returned during the same year for Northamptonshire, which he continued to represent until the passing of the Reform Bill. He was vigilant, active, unostentatious, and honest in his political conduct during the long reign of the Tories. On Lord Grey coming to power in November 1830, Althorp was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. While he held this responsible office, he was distinguished for his industry and candour, and "the honest Lord Althorp" was a name by which he was long known to the House of Commons and the public. In his public appearances he was shy and undecided, and had a thick and painful utterance. Much more capable of gathering the juice of details than of extracting the riches from a large generalization, he was incapable, rather than otherwise, of grasping with iron hand the intelligence and the sympathies of the House. Yet it was astonishing the patience with which they waited on his sluggish utterance and his general clumsiness. This was doubtless owing to the high character which he bore. His mind was naturally vigorous; his memory was good; his affections were warm; and he was wholly free from malice in his public conduct. Lord Jeffrey expresses once and again his admiration of his "calm, clumsy, courageous, immutable probity, and well meaning." The good sense and the unflinching honesty of the man carried him over many a quagmire in which many a cleverer man would have unquestionably sunk. The most conspicuous measures which he supported were the Reform Bill and the Poor Law Amendment Act.

On the 10th of November 1834 Lord Althorp was elevated to the Upper House by his father's death, and his majesty at once availed himself of the opportunity of declaring the Melbourne ministry dissolved. Henceforward Earl Spencer confined his energies for the most part to the improvement of agriculture and to the growth of cattle. It was at his suggestion the Royal Agricultural Society was formed in 1837; and he was not only chosen president of this society, but likewise of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society in 1843. Lord Spencer was likewise an original member of the Roxburgh Club, and was vice-chairman of the council of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Lord Brougham dedicates to him his Discourse on the Study of Natural Theology, 1835; and it is understood that it is Lord Althorp with whom he conducts his Dialogues on Instinct, 1839. Lord Spencer died at his seat, Wiston Hall, in Nottinghamshire, on the 1st of October 1845. He was succeeded in the peerage by his next surviving brother.