C)\\vA CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 096 785 351 Cornell University Library The original of this bool< is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924096785351 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2003 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY : GENEALOGICAL SKETCH OF THE DESCENDANTS OF Samuel Spencer OF PENNSYLVANIA BY HOWARD M. JENKINS AUTHOR OF " HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS RELATING TO GWYNEDD," VOLUME ONE, "MEMORIAL HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA," ETC., ETC. |)l)Uabei|it)ia FERRIS & LEACH 29 North Seventh Street 1904 . CONTENTS. Page I. Samuel Spencer, Immigrant, I 11. John Spencer, of Bucks County, II III. Samuel Spencer's Wife : The Whittons, H IV. Samuel Spencer, 2nd, 22 V. William. Spencer, of Bucks, 36 VI. The Spencer Genealogy 1 First and Second Generations, 2. Third Generation, J. Fourth Generation, 79 ^. Fifth Generation, 114. J. Sixth Generation, 175 6. Seventh Generation, . 225 VII. Supplementary .... 233 ' ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Page 32, third line, "adjourned" should be, of course, "adjoined." Page 33, footnote, the date 1877 should read 1787. " " Page 37, twelfth line from bottom, Three Tons should be "Three Tuns. ' Page 61, Hannah (Shoemaker) Shoemaker, Owen's second wife, must have been a grand-niece, not cousin, of Gaynor and Eliza. Thus : Joseph Lukens and Elizabeth Spencer. Hannah, m. Shoemaker. Gaynor Eliza Other children. I Charles Shoemaker Hannah, m. Owen S. Page 62, the name Horsham is divided at end of line as if pronounced Hor-sham ; the pronunciation is Hors-ham. The same error occurs on p.105. Page 105, the ^ after No. 235 should be omitted. Page 127, the number of Ann Kemble, who married Thomas Km Spencer, should be 393, not 303. Page 136, the name of Katharine Miller's husband is given as Albert Lewis ; it should be Levis. Page 141, A ^ should be supplied after the name of Harry Lindley Spencer (480). Information in regard to Ellen (477) and John P. (481), which was omitted from its proper place, will be found in Chapter VII. Page 208, the generation number of Samuel Spencer should be VI, not VII. IV, PREFACE. The preparation of the present sketch, extending as it has over almost two decades, has been attended with many difBculties. The materials were gathered in the intervals of other and most exacting labors, which effectually prevented any attempt at continuous and sustained work. As was inevitable where much the larger part of the work was carried on by correspondence, the materials were often tardy in coming in, and faulty and incomplete when received. Of many remote branches of the family, particularly those which were transplanted to Virginia, and later to Ohio and the middle West, it has seemed impossible to obtain full and reliable information. Like so many others who have "moved West," the old life and the old kindred have been left behind, the home ties have been snapped, and the thread we have been following comes to an abrupt end. Gathered from many sources, and at intervals sometimes of several years, the record is thus too often broken and meagre, and the treatment of different branches, and even of different individuals in the same family, ragged and uneven. It was plainly impracticable to write to many corre- spondents frequentiy or at length, and the data from them had to be accepted as sent. Another difficulty arose from the fact that the sheets of the book were printed as fast as the material was ready, thus forbidding the insertion of whatever more full and accurate data were received later, and compelling the omission of births, marriages, and deaths which have occurred in the years since the first sheets went to press. There has been some attempt to remedy this by adding in a short supplementary chapter matters which it was thought desirable, for one reason or another, to include. Even with this, however, much of the later data of the family has necessarily been passed over. In spite of the many difficulties, nevertheless, the book presents a record of the descendants of Samuel Spencer which is believed to be practically as full and as accurate as it is possible to make it. No facts — vi. THE SPENCER FAMIL V are stated without due authority from some record or correspondent, and the effort to include every member of the family was conscientiously made. The use of numerals for the different months throughout the book Third month, Fourth month, etc., instead of March and April—may require a word of explanation. Practically all the early records being ' ' it made by and relating to ' Friends ' (to which religious body, may be remarked, most of the Spencers have belonged), they had the months so designated, and it was thought best to keep them uniform throughout the book. There has been no attempt to magnify the Spencers. They have been for the most part a plain people, a large proportion of them tillers of the soil to this day, industrious, worthy, and unpretending. Whatever noble and illustrious connections the first Samuel may have had in England (a matter treated briefly in the last chapter of this book), his descendants have been men and women of the people, who may neverthe- less be regarded with no less admiration, and frequently with far more respect, than their titled cousins. It must be the chief distinction of the family, not that many have climbed high, but that few have fallen low. In conclusion, grateful thanks must be returned to the many friends and correspondents whose cheerful and intelligent co-operation has made the preparation of the book possible. Special acknowledgments for most valuable aid are due to EUwood Roberts, of the Norristown (Pa.) Herald, Anna Spencer, of Germantown, Lemuel Thomas, of Philadelphia, uncle of the author, and to EUwood Michener, of Toughkenamon, Pa. In a conversation some months previous to his death, my father, Howard M. Jenkins, spoke of the Spencer book as "nearly done," remarking that he thought he might turn it over to me to finish, as the material for the rest of the book was already collected, and needed only to be arranged and copied. This I have found to be not altogether correct, as considerable matter in one or two branches was not at hand, and had to be sought from correspondents in several States. The proportion of the whole work which I have thus prepared, however (further than to arrange and transcribe the materials), is quite small. The foregoing Preface has been written from brief notes prepared by my father, and follows, I beUeve, the general hne he intended it should take. THE SPENCER FAMIL Y vii. It is a source of much gratification that the book was so far advanced that it could be taken up and finished practically as my father had planned. Correspondingly deep is the regret that he did not live to see the completion of the work in which he took such lively interest and pleasure. The preparation of the book was in my father's case (as, in a different sense, it has been in mine), a true labor of love. The Spencers as a family he held in high esteem, and his own Spencer strain he regarded with considerable satisfaction. The completed volume goes out to its little world of relatives and friends a testimony to the healthy family pride, the perseverance, and the unselfishness of its author. Arthur Hugh Jenkins. Gwynedd, Pa. I. Samuel Spencer, Immigrant. IN 1705 there died, between November 26 and December 18, presumably in the county of Philadelphia, Samuel Spencer. It is a tradition which seems to have been generally preserved among the members of the family descended from him that he was a sea-captain, that he came from England about 1700, that having purchased a tract of land in Upper Dublin,' he returned to England, intending to make one more voyage, but died on the passage. This is the account preserved in the branch of the family descended from Jacob Spencer, his grandson, while k memorandum by Sarah, daughter of Nathan Spencer, of Ger- mantown (great grandson of Samuel), briefly but explicitly says : " Samuel the parent, was a sea-faring man and died at sea." The documentary evidence concerning Samuel Spencer shows that there must be an element of error in this well-pre- served tradition. Samuel Spencer's will is on record, and shows " these facts : That he died in 1705, of the county of Philadel- ' Upper Dublin is a township in Montgomery (originally Philadelphia) county, ii miles north from the city of Philadelphia, adjoining the townships of Gwynedd, Hors- ham, Moreland, Abington, Springfield, Whitemarsh, and Whitpain. Its form is nearly square, 0^% miles long, 3ji( wide; its area called 8,840 acres. When it was formally made a township is not stated in the historical accounts known to the writer, but evi- dently before 1705, as it is referred to as such in documents of that year cited in this volume. It was called as early as 1693, " the second Dublin township," to distinguish it from Dublin township, several miles below (and entirely detached), in Philadelphia county, afterward called Lower Dublin. (i) 2 THE SPENCER FAMILY phia," that he called himself a "merchant," and that he had been previously " of Barbadoes." His will is dated November 26, 1705, and w^as proved December 20, following. He must therefore have been alive on the former date, and dead on the later one, only twenty-four days after, in which interval there was no time for a voyage to England, and scarcely for information of his death to reach land, if he had actually sailed away from the American shores.