Gerrard Spencer

• Death Notes
  • Died before 1646.

• General Notes
  • 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.

Click here for details of Gerrard's family with Alice Whitbread

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