John Brodie Spence was a prominent Scottish-born banker and politician in the early days of South Australia. He was a brother of the reformer Catherine Helen Spence. Spence was born in Melrose, Scottish Borders to David Spence, solicitor and first Town Clerk of Adelaide, and Helen Brodie Spence. He arrived in South Australia on 31 October 1839 on the Palmyra with his mother. Other children of David and Helen on the passenger list were his sisters Catherine, Jessie, Helen and Mary and brother William. His father arrived earlier on the Dumfries. The family was struggling to make ends meet, so after some seven months, he and his brother went farming, without much success, and he moved to Adelaide in 1845, joining either the Bank of Adelaide or the Bank of South Australia, where he remained for seven years. He was afterwards for five years official assignee and curator of intestate estates, then in 1856 accountant in the Railway Department, and from 1859 to 1864 Official Assignee and Curator of Intestate Estates. but left that office for the management of the English and Scottish Bank which he held till 1878. Between around 1879 and 1881 he was involved with Arthur Harvey in land development at The Grange and East Adelaide. He was elected a member of the Legislative Council in 1881, second on the poll with Henry Ayers, W. C. Buik, James Rankine, John Pickering, and R. A. Tarlton. He was Chief Secretary in the Downer Government from June to October 1885, when he retired to take the position of Commissioner of Public Works. In June 1886 he again took office as Chief Secretary, retiring the following month. On 5 February 1896, he was appointed one of the first five trustees of the State Bank, and was Chairman of the board at the time of his death.
Family
His parents were David Spence and Helen Spence . Their children were:
Agnes Spence
Jessie Spence married Andrew Murray on 2 November 1841. He was businessman then journalist for the South Australian and later the Melbourne Argus and Economist.
William Richard Spence
John Brodie Spence married Jessie Cumming on 22 April 1858. Their home was "Fenton", Glenelg. They had three daughters:
Catherine Helen Spence
David Spence, jnr. stayed in Scotland for his education, emigrated in 1846. Never married.
Mary Brodie Spence married William John Wren on 19 December 1855. Wren was with legal firm Bartley, Bakewell, & Stow, then solicitor in partnership with James Boucaut as Boucaut & Wren.
