[1] Ambrose Spencer was born on December 13, 1765, in Salisbury in the Connecticut Colony.

[1] He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Hudson, New York, where he was city clerk from 1786 until 1793.

[1] From 1796 to 1801, he was Assistant Attorney General for the Third District, comprising Columbia and Rensselaer counties.

Governor Joseph C. Yates nominated him to be re-appointed, but this was rejected by Bucktails majority in the State Senate, Spencer having been the longtime leader of the Clintonians.

[1] Spencer was a presidential elector in 1808 and a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1821.

The Bucktails majority in the State Senate did not nominate any candidate, thus preventing Spencer's election on joint ballot.

[10] In 1848, he died in Lyons and was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.