[1] The latter year he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's barony of Spencer of Wormleighton.

From 1798, he resided at Whiteknights Park at Earley, near Reading, where he became famous for his extravagant collecting of antiquities, especially books.

He retired to Blenheim Palace, where he lived the remainder of his life off a small annuity granted to the first Duke by Queen Anne.

[7] The diarist Harriet Arbuthnot wrote one of her most scathing comments about the Duke following a visit to Blenheim in 1824: The family of the great General is, however, gone sadly to decay, and are but a disgrace to the illustrious name of Churchill, which they have chosen this moment to resume.

People may shoot and fish at so much per hour and it has required all the authority of a Court of Chancery to prevent his cutting down all the trees in the park.