Robert Spencer of Spencer Combe
Sir Robert Spencer (died pre-1510) "of Spencer Combe" in the parish of Crediton, Devon, was the husband of Eleanor Beaufort (1431–1501), the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406–1455), KG, and was father to two daughters and co-heiresses who made notable marriages. Origins. The origins of Spencer are unclear. The Devon historian Tristram Risdon (died 1640), quoting his source "Vincent upon Brooke and Mills", suggested he was lord of the manor of Spencer Combe in the parish of Crediton, Devon, which his ancestor Richard Spencer had inherited by marriage to Alice Hody , daughter of William Hody of Combe Lancells, whose own family had inherited it from the Lancells family. However Risdon's contemporary Sir William Pole (died 1635) makes no mention of Sir Robert at Spencer Combe, and states that the estate descended via the heiress Jone Spencer to the Giffard family. His origin at Spencer Combe is however traditional, and is given thus in most published pedigrees and rolls of arms. The American genealogist Douglas Richardson suggests that Sir Robert Spencer was in fact the son and heir of John Spencer, Esquire, MP for Dorset, of Frampton in Dorset, Ashbury in  Devon and Brompton Ralph in Somerset, by his wife Jone. Career. Little if anything is known about the career of Sir Robert Spencer, other than Risdon's statement that he was "Captain of the castle of Homet and Thomeline in Normandy". Due to his wife's inheritance of the manor and advowson of Hazelbury Bryan in Dorset, Spencer made presentations to the rectory in 1493 and 1496. Landholdings. He held the following manors, in right of his wife's dower: Marriage and issue. In about 1465 he married (as her 2nd husband) Eleanor Beaufort (1431–1501), the widow of James Butler , 5th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (d.1461) and the daughter and eventual heiress of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406–1455), KG, the third surviving son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the eldest of the four legitimised children of John of Gaunt (1340-1399) (third surviving son of King Edward III) by his mistress Katherine Swynford). Her brothers were the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Somerset. By his wife he had two daughters and co-heiresses as follows: Death. Sir Robert Spencer died shortly before 1510, his will having been proved on 12 April 1510. Heraldry . The arms of "Spencer of Spencer Combe" as quartered by the Percy Earls of Northumberland, visible in the Percy Window in the chapel at Petworth House and by the Cary Viscounts Falkland are: "Sable, two bars nebuly ermine". Sir William Pole, however, gives the arms of Spencer of Spencer Combe as: "Argent, on a bend sable two pairs of keys or".