Thomas F. Spencer

Children of Thomas F. Spencer and

Thomas F. Spencer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Reverend John Holding, Vicar of Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England, made an
extensive search of old records and other historical data relating to the
Spencers who migrated to America in 1632 from Bedfordshire, England.
Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire are adjoining territory.(counties).
Eton Socon lies near Badby, the home of Henry Spencer, and Mr. Holding
suggests that Thomas Spencer, the second son of Henry Spencer, was the
Thomas Spencer who resided at Eton Socon in 1433. The first official
notice of the Spencer family in Bedfordshire, England, occurs in an
official document issued by certain commissioners appointed by King Henry
IV in the year 1433 as the result of an equiry that had been made by
authority of Parlaiment. We are told that the Commons in the Parlaiment
of 1433, thee having been complaints that the country swarmed with
robbers, and oppressors of the people, and various evil doers, it was
enacted that certain commissioners in every county should have power to
summon them all persons of quality, and to administer to them an oath for
better keeping of the peace and observing the King's laws, both as
tothemselves and their retainers. (Blayde's Visitation of
Bedfordshire, pg ix) The list of persons of quality thus summoned
includes the names of Thomas Spencer and Johannes Spencer. In the
Pamphlet compiled by the Rev. John Holding, M.A., he says: "Our search
must commence then with the first recorded fact of 1433, and from this as
a starting point our investigation must proceed. The Hearld's Visitation
Book of 1566 was made more than a century afterwards, and the pedigrees
that given embrace some of 3 or 4 generations at last before a family
could claim to rank among the gentry." From an old manuscript in the
British Museum, called Phillip's MS. (No 10376) Mr Holding found material
which states that Thomas Spencer of Eton Socon left 3 sons: John, Robert
and Thomas. The social status of Thomas Spencer of Eton Socon is not
shown in any of the Herald's Visitations, although it is stated that he
was a man of some standing in the county in 1433. Mr Holding says: "One
thing is certain, the Bedfordshire Spencers were allied to those of
Northamptonshire, but where the point of junction lies it is impossible
for us to say., as we have no material at our disposal to enable us to
decide. they must have satisfied the Hearlds in their visitations in
1566, 1634 and 1666, that they were the same family, otherwise they would
not have been allowed to bear the same coat of arms and crest, as they
did, with only one slight difference, that whereas on the bend sable of
the Northampton arms, there are three escallops (shells) on the
Bedfordshire shield, there are three fleurs-di-lis. The crest is exactly
the same a griffin's head between two wings expanded, emerging out of a
mural crown."
of Eton Secno, England