Gerard Spencer & Alice Whitbread

Children of Gerard Spencer and Alice Whitbread

Gerard Spencer

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Was the oldest son of Michael Spencer of Stotfold, Bedfordshire. He was
baptized there May 20th, 1576. He married Alice Whitbred. He died prior
to 1646.

William, Thomas, Michael and Gerard (not John), migrated to New England
about 1632. Mr.Holding says: "I do not think that religion or religious
persecution had anything to do with their leaving England. Men engaged in
commerce at that time could, and did, proper, but the lot of
agriculturalists, owing to heavy taxes on the land of an exhausting and
harassing nature, was pitiable in the extreme, and almost intolerable.
The political atmosphere of England at that time was so dark and
threatening that we cannot wonder at such men leaving for better
prospects and a more cheerful sphere of enterprise across the sea."

According to Frank R. Holmes, in his book, Dictionary of the Heads of New
England Families, 1923, he writes the following: Jared (Gerard) son of
Michael, baptized Stratford, Eng., 1576, came to Cambridge, Mass. 1632,
with his five sons, of whom John returned to England. Thomas, known as
Sgt Thomas, and William removed to Hartford, CT, 1636. Michael located
Haddam, where his father joined him, 1662. (This information does not to
be all true, given the other information we have on the 4 Brothers. Some
entries might be correct, tho.) Source: The American Genealogist, Whole
Nr. 105, Vol. 27, Nr. 1, Jan 1951

It seems quite possible that Gerard and his family moved from Stotfold
some years before the emigration of his sons to New England; perhaps to
London, where his brother Richard had become a prosperous haberdasher.
The records cited establish the parentage of the four New Englad
brothers, and their descent from John and Anne Spencer of Edworth.
Various attempts which we have seen to push the line further back either
contain fatal flaws or lack any acceptable evidence to sustain them. The
New England Spencers made efforts to obtain payment of the 50 pounds
apiece bequeathed to them by their uncle, Richard Spencer of London,
whose chief heir and executor was their cousin, Daniel Spencer of London.
On 8 Jan 1648/9, Garrard (Gerard) Spencer appointed Thomas Broughton of
Watertown, Mass., and Samuel King of London, England, his attorneys to
collect his legacy under the last will of Richard Spencer, late of
London, linen draper, deceased; and the same date, "Michaell Spencer of
Linne" did likewise (Aspinwall Notorial Records (1903), 182, 190). On 19
Jan 1648, i.e. 1648/9, Michaell Spense (as he signed his name) signed in
Boston a bill of exchange to Mr. Thomas Ruck, "haberdasher att the Seauen
starres on London bridge," for 30 pounds, "part of the Legacy gyuen mee
by my Unckle Richard Spencer," and directed to my "my Louinge Cousen, Mr
Danyell Spencer Grocer in Friday Streete in London." This bill of
exchange was protested, 5 Apr 1650, by a London notary, who swore that
upon presentation "the said Danyell Spencer answered, that hee will pay
noe monneyes nor haue to doe wit the sayd bill of exchange." (Quarterly
Courts of Essex County, 4:385; quoted also in Waterres, op cit., 515.)

The cousin Daniel Spencer was at death of Cony Hatch, co. Middlesex,
citizen and grocer of London, and left a will dated 26 July 1665, proved
6 Nov 1668 (Waters, op.cit., 913>) He evidently died a wealthy man,
mentioning messuages or lands in Lothbury, near Greene's Court, London;
in Hitchin, Hippoletts and Preston, co. Hertsford, including the Red Lion
Inn in Hitching; in Gravesend and Rochester, Kent, and in Tilbery, Essex.
He named wife Sarah; eldest son Samuel; son Daniel; daughters Rebecca and
Hannah Spencer, daughters Mary wife of Thomas Thatch and Anne wife of
William tilsley; and kinsman William Carter.

The son Samuel died by 1674, leaving a widow Rebecca and daughter Mary
Spencer. No mention was made of the American cousins. Whether the
legacies werre ever collected, we are not prepared to stat. The amount at
stake was sufficient to have made it worth the trouble and cost of suing
through an attorney in England. Possibly a search of Chancery records
would reveal something of interest. An action of this nature, naming the
parties at interest, would be of immense value if brought after the death
of Michael Spencer in 1653, for it should name his surviving children. We
have full records of the families of the other three brothers, but, as we
shall presently see, the New England records are very defective with
respect to the children of Michael Spencer.

Before concluding this chapter, it seems advisable to dispose of an error
which occurs in many printed sources to the effect that the four Spencer
brothers were accompanied to New England by a fifth brother, the John who
was baptized at Stotfold, 22 Jan 1603/4. (see Notes under John)

There were other Spencer families in New England, not to mention the
South, who were unrelated, so fas as known, to the four colonist sons of
Gerard Spencer of Stotfold, Bedfordshire, and since they have never been
confused so far as we know with the Stotfold family, there is no need to
discuss them here.

However, we may mention that one George Spencer came to New England about
1636, was in trouble in New Haven in 1640, and the following year was
hanged fro an offence under the Mosaic Law which New Haven had set up in
place of the common law of England. George Spencer testified that he knew
Roger Alling (Allen) in England. Furthermore, a "Goodman Spencer was
steward of Capt. Lamberton on the voyage over, buy dying on the passage
was succeeded as steward by Roger Alling. He left an only daughter in the
hands of Mr. Fowler and "Goodman" Tapp. This was Hannah Spencer, who
seems to have been raised in Milford, Conn. She married, 2 May 1661,
Benjamin Jones, and left a son Benjamin and descendants.

Since both of these New Haven Spencers were acquainted with Roger Alling,
who was a native of Kempston, co. Bedford, and since there were Spencers
in Kempston, it seems likely that they came from that vicinity.
Descendants of Hannah (Spencer) Jones might do well to seek her origin
there. We have not pursued this line of investigation further, as there
is no proved connection between the Spencers of Stotfold and those of
Kempston, and we have touched upon the matter here solely because of the
clue to a Bedfordshire origin for Hannah and to forestall any possible
attempts to identify her as a member of the Stotfold family.

Alice Whitbread

Thomas Spencer

Gerrard Spencer