 One of the manors within the parish of Cople was Rowlands, acquired by the Spencer family in 1531 and held by them for several centuries.The Spencer family were a branch of the Northamptonshire Spencers (with whom they shared a coat-of-arms).The sons of Nicolas Spencer Sr. and the former Mary Gostwick, Nicholas Spencer and his brother Robert both emigrated to America in the 1650s, to Virginia and Maryland respectively.