Family and Education

?s. of Walter Spycer of Dorchester.1 m. 13 Oct. 1600, Thomasine (d. 10 Apr. 1633), da. of William Read of Dorchester, 2s. d. 26 Dec. 1623.2

Offices Held

Constable, Dorchester 1586-7, 1601-2, town steward 1590-1, 1599-1600, 1602-3, cap. burgess by 1591-d., bailiff 1595-6, 1600-1, 1608-9, 1612-13;3 freeman, Poole, Dorset 1604.4

Biography

Spicer was possibly the son of a Dorchester resident who was mustered in 1569 as a harquebusier. A tailor by trade, in 1598 he was leasing a house from the borough at an annual rent of 10s., and in the following year he delivered the town’s charter to London for it to be confirmed.5 Spicer was returned for Dorchester to the first Stuart Parliament, receiving £60 in wages. However, he left little trace on the Commons’ records. His only personal nomination, on 23 Jan. 1606, was to scrutinize the bill to relieve the vicar of Radipole, Dorset, and it was apparently William Spicer, rather than this Member, who actually attended the committee’s only recorded meeting on 5 February.6 Spicer died on 26 Dec. 1623, ‘having been many years in decay of his understanding’. No will or administration grant has been found. His son Walter (1603-81) occupied one of Dorchester’s larger houses after the Restoration, but no other member of the family held civic office or entered Parliament.7

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Dorset Tudor Muster Rolls ed. T.L. Stoate, 161.
• 2. Soc. Gen., Holy Trinity, Dorchester par. reg.; William Whiteway of Dorchester (Dorset Rec. Soc. xii), 56, 129; Dorset Par. Regs. vii. 5.
• 3. Dorset RO, B2/11/2; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 352.
• 4. Dorset RO, DC/PL/B/7/1, f. 45v.
• 5. Dorset Tudor Muster Rolls, 161; Municipal Recs. of Dorchester ed. C.H. Mayo, 37, 697; Dorset RO, B2/11/2.
• 6. Hutchins, ii. 356; CJ, i. 259a; C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 183.
• 7. William Whiteway of Dorchester, 56; Soc. Gen., Holy Trinity, Dorchester par. reg.; Dorset Hearth Tax Assessments ed. C.A.F. Meekings, 3.