Spencer Novich

Colonel Nicholas Spencer was an English-born merchant, planter and politician in colonial Virginia. Born in Cople, Bedfordshire, Spencer migrated to the Westmoreland County, Virginia, where he became a planter and which he twice briefly represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Spencer later served as the colony's Secretary and on the Governor's Council, rising to become its President. On the departure of his cousin Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper in 1683, he was named Acting Governor (1683–84), in which capacity Spencer served until the arrival of Governor Lord Howard of Effingham. Spencer's role as agent for the Colepepers helped him and his cousin Lt. Col. John Washington, ancestor of George Washington, secure the patent for their joint land grant of the Mount Vernon estate.