Nicholas Spencer
[9] Nicholas Spencer, Sr., father of the Virginia emigrant, and his wife, the former Mary Gostwick, second daughter of Sir Edward Gostwick, 2nd Baronet,[10] had several sons, of these William inherited the family estates but died childless after making his heir his nephew, also William, son of his next-brother Nicholas who had moved to Virginia.
[14] Colepeper had inherited his father's share of ownership in the Virginia Company in 1617, and was subsequently knighted and afterwards raised to the peerage.
On arriving in the colony, Spencer secured a lucrative appointment as customs collector, in addition to administrator of his cousin's Virginia estates.
[15] Spencer and his neighbor and longtime burgess John Washington jointly held the post of customs collector on the Potomac.
But Spencer was, unlikely as it sounds, apparently an efficient administrator on his own, later being appointed to additional posts in Virginia by virtue of his abilities.
"The low price of Tobacco," Spencer wrote, "requires it should bee made as cheap as possible, and that Blacks can make it cheaper than Whites.
While simultaneously attempting to rationalize slavery, Spencer was also writing to the Privy Council in England about the Virginia Colony's precarious place on the edge of Catholic Maryland.
"[18][19] At the same time, the forces that were propelling the Virginia Colony into the forefront of American economic and social might – primarily the raising of tobacco based on slavery – were simultaneously making Spencer's administrative role tricky.
"[20] Westmoreland County voters twice named Spencer as one of their representatives in the House of Burgesses, and each time he served alongside his neighbor John Washington.
Such civil disobedience, Nicholas Spencer saw, was the price paid by colonial administrators acting the foil for the empire's merchants back home.
[22] When taken with symptoms of illness, Spencer wrote to his brother in England outlining his pains, and asked him to consult an English doctor and send him the diagnosis as quickly as possible.
Aside from acting as agent for the Colepeper interests, Spencer was frequently involved in Virginia Colony business, and he often corresponded with English administrators in London,[27] as well as family members in Bedfordshire and elsewhere.
Because of the early deaths of his brothers, Spencer was the only surviving son of his father Nicholas, and so inherited extensive family estates in Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire.
"[29] The controversial Richard Cole had also specified that his body be buried on his plantation in a black walnut coffin with a gravestone of English black marble (to be imported for the purpose) and a tombstone whose epitaph read: "Heere lies Dick Cole a grievous Sinner, That died a Little before Dinner, Yet hopes in Heaven to find a place, To Satiate his Soul with Grace.
"[30] Spencer married Frances, the daughter of Col. John Mottrom of Coan Hall of Northumberland County, Virginia.
Another Spencer son, William, returned to England for schooling and remained there, serving as a Whig Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire.
