Introduction

Biography

Spenser was the son of Mat­thew Not­ting­ham and Ma­ry Young. He mar­ried twice, to Sa­rah Ma­ria Price (1849) and Ada Ma­ri­an Smith (1884).

He was pre­cent­or of St. Mat­thi­as’ Church, Stoke New­ing­ton, Lon­don (1852–66), while Will­iam Monk played the or­gan there.

He was al­so hon­or­ary choir mas­ter at St. Ma­ry’s, Stam­ford Brook, Chis­wick (1868–72). The church closed in 1982, and the pa­rish merged with St. Sav­iour Stam­ford Brook. The for­mer church site was lat­er con­vert­ed to flats.

He was one of the found­ers of the Lon­don Gre­gor­i­an As­so­cia­tion, and was known for ad­vo­cat­ing the res­to­ra­tion of plain song in the church.

Works

• A Di­rect­o­ry of Plain­song (ed­it­ed with Rev. J. W. Dor­an)