In 1901 while he carried on with the family business in Bury St Edmunds his wife Sarah and daughter Helen Margaret Spanton went to live with his brother-in-law Elisha Pechey at his home in Hadley Wood in Barnet. Later in 1901 Spanton sold the family business along with its collections of negatives to Harry Isaac Jarman. Spanton joined his family in Barnet where he began a new career as an artist, portrait painter and copyist in oil. His family were strong supporters of women's suffrage - his artist daughter Helen Margaret Spanton was a prominent militant suffragette; on their census return for 1911 they wrote, "Four members of this family demand Votes for Women". Spanton was seriously injured in a motoring accident at Blackheath on 24 December 1930 aged 85 and died of his injuries on 27 December 1930 at St Alfege's Hospital in Greenwich; in his will he left £8,269 to his daughter Helen Margaret Spanton. Spanton, his wife Sarah and daughter Helen are buried in the family grave at Charlton Cemetery in Greenwich.