Andrew Nathaniel Wadham Spens of Craigsanquhar (25 April 1844 – 13 April 1932) was a Scottish‑born Church of England priest who served as Archdeacon of Lahore in British India from 1892 to 1900.
Born into the Spens family of Craigsanquhar, he was the son of Major‑General Andrew Spens (1801–1859) and Diana Diggle. His early education was at Loretto School in Edinburgh, after which he attended Durham University. At Durham he studied for a licentiate in Theology as a member of Hatfield Hall and was awarded a Barry Scholarship.
Ordained in 1868, Spens held curacies in Trowbridge, Tamworth and Millbrook before becoming a colonial chaplain to British Guiana in 1870. He subsequently served at St Paul’s, Covent Garden and Mildenhall, and in 1874 was posted to India. There he served as chaplain in Bengal, at Calcutta Cathedral, and on the North West Frontier at locations including Sialkot, Karachi, Amritsar, Ferozepore, Multan and Simla. In 1892 he was appointed Archdeacon of Lahore, a senior ecclesiastical post he held until 1900.
Spens married three times. His first marriage to Sarah Middleton in 1871 produced a son, Andrew William Spens (1872–1917), a Cambridge graduate who died of wounds in the First World War. His second wife was Emma Burgoyne Condon, whom he married in 1880, and his third wife was Martha Ella James, married in 1902. Through his third marriage he became brother‑in‑law to the Rev. Canon Mark James.
In 1897 Spens’s arms were matriculated at the Court of the Lord Lyon, confirming his status as “Spens of Craigsanquhar.” He died on 13 April 1932 at the age of 87.
Spens is noted for his long service in the Anglican ministry across the British Empire, particularly his leadership role in the Diocese of Lahore during a period of significant ecclesiastical and colonial activity.