William Spencer

b. 1601 · Stotfold, England

Born 1601, Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England

Father: Gerard Spencer

Mother: Alice Whitbread

Children include Sarah

William Spencer was baptised at Stotfold in Bedfordshire on 11 October 1601: "Wm s Gerard Spencer." He was the eldest son of Gerard Spencer and Alice Whitbread. His younger brothers Thomas, Michael and Gerard also went to New England. His wife Agnes Harris came from Barnstaple in Devon.

He was one of the first settlers of Hartford in Connecticut. His name is cut on the founders' monument in the Ancient Burying Ground there, with that of Thomas Spencer, his brother.

He made his will at Hartford on 4 May 1640, calling it "A noate of the mynd and will of Willia Spencer, for prsent." He divided everything in three. A third went to his wife, a third to his son Samuel, and a third "to my two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth." The children were to be "brought vppe wth the improvement of the whole estate," that is, raised on the income of the whole until their portions came due. He asked "my Cosen Matthew Allyn, my brother John Pratt, and John Taylcoate" to oversee the estate, any two of them acting together. His inventory came to 231 pounds 12 shillings and 2 pence.

He died in 1640 or soon after. His children were small: Sarah was about five, and Samuel was probably born in 1639. His widow Agnes married William Edwards of Hartford.

The estate was settled ten years later. On 24 June 1650 the court acted "in presence of Thomas Spencer, the brother of sd. Decd., with the Consent of the wife of William Edwards." Bonds were taken for each child's portion. If all of them died first, the money was to be paid "to Agnes Edwards, or her Lawfull Attorney of the said Agnes, the mother of the said children." The court also provided that if any estate should come from England that was "due to the wife of the sd. William Spencer," two thirds of it should go to the children.

Parents

Gerard Spencer b. 1576 Alice Whitbread b. 1578

Children

Sarah Spencer 1635-1691

Sources

Find a Grave memorial 251389882, Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Connecticut, photograph

F. G. Emmison, ed., Bedfordshire Parish Registers, vol. 38, Stotfold, p. A3, archive.org bedfordshirepari38bedf

Donald Lines Jacobus, "The Four Spencer Brothers," The American Genealogist 27 (1951), p. 84, archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1951-04_27_2

Clarence Almon Torrey, "The Whitbread Family," The American Genealogist 32 (1956), p. 135, archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1956-07_32_3

Charles William Manwaring, A Digest of Early Connecticut Probate Records, vol. I (Hartford, 1904), archive.org digestofearlycon01manw, pp. 36-37, from Hartford Probate Records p. 449; F. G. Emmison, ed., Bedfordshire Parish Registers, vol. 38, Stotfold, pp. A3-A4, archive.org bedfordshirepari38bedf; Donald Lines Jacobus, "The Four Spencer Brothers," The American Genealogist 27 (1951), pp. 80-84, archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1951-04_27_2; Clarence Almon Torrey, "The Whitbread Family," The American Genealogist 32 (1956), p. 135, archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1956-07_32_3

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Cite: Heirology, "William Spencer (b. 1601)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-spencer-1601-1a6d8b.