Francis Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill

Francis Almeric Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill DCL FRS (26 December 1779 – 7 March 1845) was a British peer and Whig politician from the Spencer family.

Early life Born Lord Francis Almeric Spencer, he was the second youngest of the 4th Duke of Marlborough,

During the Napoleonic Wars he raised a Troop of volunteer cavalry in Oxford and was appointed its Captain on 3 November 1803 After the wars the independent troops in the county were consolidated into the North Western Oxfordshire Regiment of Yeomanry, with Spencer (now Lord Churchill) as Lieutenant-Colonel. Together, they were the parents of:

Francis George Spencer, 2nd Baron Churchill (1802–1886), who married Lady Jane Conyngham, daughter of Gen. Sir Francis Conyngham, 2nd Marquess Conyngham, in 1849. image = Coat of arms of Spencer, Baron Churchill.svg

crest = Out of a ducal Coronet or, a griffin’s head between two Wings expanded argent, gorged with a bar gemel gules, armed gold. escutcheon = Quarterly: 1st & 4th, quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third quarters charged with a fret or, over all on a bend sable with three escallops argent (Spencer); 2nd & 3rd, Sable, a lion rampant argent, on a canton of the last, a cross gules (Churchill). supporters = Dexter: A griffin wings erect per fess argent and or gorged with a collar of the last, thereon three escallops sable, line reflexed over the back also or. Sinister: A wyvern the wings erect gules, collared as the dexter. motto = Dieu defend le droit (God defend the right).

Honours Mount Churchill in British Columbia, Canada, was named in his honor in 1860 by Sir George Henry Richards.