[1] She was cousin of the diarist Henry Crabb Robinson and sister-in law of radical publisher William Saunders, who placed her brother Edward Spender into a position as editor of the Western Morning News.
[2] She was the great aunt of Stephen Spender, the British poet.
[3] Spender published her first two novels anonymously, first a conventional novel Son and Heir (1870), and then the feminist novel Restored (Hurst & Blackett, 1871), which was dedicated to Lilias Sophia Hallett the leader of the Bristol society for women's suffrage.
[2] Spencer went on to write more novels including Kingsford: A Novel (1866), True Marriage (1878), Until the Day Breaks (1886), and A Soldier for a Day: A Story of the Italian War of Independence (1901).
[1] In 1871 she was the honorary secretary of the Bath committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage (NSWS).