Walter Spencer-Stanhope (1749–1822)
Walter Spencer-Stanhope, of Horsforth and Leeds, Yorkshire, was a British industrialist whose family fortune had been made through the iron trade, and a politician who sat in the House of Commons for various constituencies between 1775 and 1812.Background and education
Spencer-Stanhope was born Stanhope, only surviving son of Walter Stanhope, one-time merchant of Leeds, and his second wife Ann Spencer, daughter of William Spencer of Cannon Hall. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and went up to University College, Oxford, and later studied law at the Middle Temple, London. In 1775 Stanhope inherited Cannon Hall from his uncle, John Spencer, and changed his name from Stanhope to Spencer-Stanhope by Royal licence.Political career
Spencer-Stanhope was elected Member of Parliament for Carlisle in 1775, Haslemere in 1780, Hull, Yorkshire in 1784, for Cockermouth in 1800, and for Carlisle, Cumberland in 1802. He was a close supporter of William Pitt the Younger and friend of William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner, after meeting whom he became a religious philanthropist.Business career
As well as their interests in establishing the cotton industry in the late seventeenth century the Spencer family were largely responsible for establishing the charcoal iron industry in the area between Leeds and Sheffield for the next 120 years.Family
Spencer-Stanhope married Mary Winifred, daughter of Thomas Babington Pulleine, in 1783. They had eight sons and seven daughters. Their son John Spencer-Stanhope was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the father of Walter Spencer-Stanhope and John Roddam Spencer Stanhope. Spencer-Stanhope died on 10 April 1821. His wife died in December 1850.
