Percy Spencer Percy Spencer Percy Lebaron Spencer (July 19, 1894 – September 8, 1970) was an American physicist and inventor. He became known as the inventor of the microwave oven. Spencer was born in Howland, Maine. Eighteen months later, Spencer's father died, and his mother soon left him in the care of his aunt and uncle. His uncle then died when Spencer was just seven years old. Spencer subsequently left grammar school to earn money to support himself and his aunt. From the ages of twelve to sixteen, he worked from sunrise to sunset at a spool mill. At the later age,
Spencer Combe as shown in the Percy window in the chapel of Petworth House and as quartered by Cary, Viscount Falkland. The American genealogist Douglas Richardson suggests however that Sir Robert Spencer was in fact the son and heir of John Spencer, Esquire, MP for Dorset, of Frampton in Dorset, Ashbury in Devon and Brompton Ralph in Somerset, by his wife Jone. The arms given by Pole for Spencer of Spencer Combe, are: "Argent, on a bend sable two pairs of keys or", and are shown quartered by Prideaux on the monument in Farway Church, Devon, to Sir Edmund Prideaux, 1st Baronet