(NB: Although the published Trial
Report records this witnesses name as "Spencer" a manuscript version
of the report in Doctors Williams Library, London, records it as "Spendlar"
. There is no Richard Spencer living in Lowestoft in the 17th century,
however the Parish Records do reveal one man named Richard Spendlar).
Very little is known regarding this
witness.
He was obviously not a Lowestoft-born man
and the first record of him appears in the parish registers in 1631 with the
baptism of a daughter, Anne, born to him and his wife Charity. There is
no further mention of Richard and Charity in the parish registers until 1647
when the baptism of a second child, Henry, is recorded.
However, the manor court books reveal
that in 1644 he was appointed to be one of Lowestoft's four Constables, in
1653 he was one of the Town's Churchwardens and in
1665 he served as an Overseer of the Poor.
His wife died in September 1668.
The whereabouts of his house in Lowestoft
is not known for certain but it was probably located at the South End of town
only a short distances from the Tenement of Amy Denny and the house of Ann and
Cornelius Landefield.