| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. "The Great Migration," by Robert Charles Anderson:
"Michael Spencer
Origin: Stotfold, Bedford.
Migration: 1634 (based on grant of land at Cambridge on 1 September 1634 [CaTR 10]).
First Residence: Cambridge.
Removes: Lynn.
Church Membership: Admission to Lynn church by March 1637/8 implied by freemanship...
Estate: ...On 30 November 1654, "Thomas Robins of Salem had some of the estate of Michaell Spencer, deceased, a bill of 52s. 6d., 2 cows with rent of same for one year, & a rug of 18s. Court ordered, with consent of Garrud Spencer, administrator of said deceased, that Robins was to have it as he had a child of the deceased to bring up. The child's name was Michaell Spencer, and he was six years old" [EQC 1:378; EPR 1:159]...
Birth: Baptized Stotfold, Bedford, 5 May 1611, son of Gerard and Alice (Whitbread) Spencer [TAG 27:84].
Death: By 29 November 1653 (appointment of administrator).
Marriage. By about 1640 Isabel ___. She married (2) by 30 November 1654 Thomas Robbins [EQC 1:378; EPR 1:159] and died at Salem on 9 October 1674. (On 31 March 1657, "Thomas Robins and Henry Skerry [were] bound for the appearance of Elizabeth Robins when the court shall call for her" [EQC 2:32]. At the same court, "Thomas Robins [was] bound to bring his wife, Isbaell Robans, to next court at Salem to answer suspicion against her" [EQC 2:37]. On 1 July 1657, "Thomas Robins [was] bound for his wife's appearance to answer to a charge of concealing things stolen by her son. She was fined, and ordered to pay Rob[er]t Lord" [EQC 2:48].)
Children:
I. John Spencer, b. by 1640 (granted land at Westerly in 1661 [TAG 27:168]); m. by 1666 Susanna (eldest known child b. 20 April 1666 [RIVR 1:East Greenwich:146; Austin 186-88; TAG 27:168]). (Jacobus assembled the evidence, from Rhode Island records, for the placement of this man as a son of Michael Spencer [TAG 27:163-64].)
ii. SUSANNAH Spencer, b. say 1644; m. Salem 1 August 1664 Daniel Bacon.
iii. Michael Spencer, b. about 1648 (aged six on 30 November 1654 [EQC 1:378]); m. Salem 7 December 1671 Rebecca Sweetman, daughter of Thomas SWEETMAN {1637, Cambridge} (on 10 December 1677, "Thomas Swaetman of Cambridge" deeded land in Cambridge to "Michael Spenc[e]r, shipcarpenter, of the same town," in return for lifetime maintenance of himself and of "Isabell Swaetman the wife of the said Thomas" [MLR 8:287])..."
2. "The American Genealogist," Vol. 27 "The Four Spencer Brothers: Their Ancestors and Descendants," compiled by Donald Lines Jacobus, M. A., pp. 163-64:
"Michael(1) Spencer, baptized at Stotfold, Beds, England, 5 May 1611, died at Lynn, Mass., in 1653; married Isabel ___, who died at Salem, Mass., 9 Oct. 1674... married second, Thomas Robbins, a carpenter, of Salem, born about 1618, living 1681. Robbins married second, 11 Mar. 1674/5, Mary (Gould), widow of Richard Bishop.
Michael is the only one of the four brothers of whose family we lack a complete account. Administration on his estate was granted, 29 Nov. 1653, to Gerard Spencer, who was also then living in Lynn, and Gerard was called his brother when he brought in the inventory. The estate was small and was ordered sold "for the bringing up of Michael's children." On 30 Nov. 1654, we read that Thomas Robbins of Salem had some of the estate and, with the consent of Gerard Spencer, was to keep it, as Robbins had a child of the deceased to bring up, Michael, aged six years. This is almost certain evidence that Michael's widow had married Robbins, especially as in 1657 she is mentioned as having a young son.
It is possible that Isabel was not the first wife of Michael Spencer, and that he had more children than have been discovered. His proved son Michael settled in East Greenwich, R.I., where a John Spencer had earlier settled. That, and the fact that John named a son Michael, establishes a presumption that John was an older son of Michael of Lynn. There is, moreover, some direct evidence. The will of Michael2 of East Greenwich in 1723 named his friend and kinsman Major Thomas Fry and Thomas Spencer overseers. The latter was a son of John2, and obviously chosen because he was a relative.
Major Thomas Fry was a prominent man, later Deputy-Governor. Michael Spencer witnessed a deed, 11 Mar. 1688/9, which this Thomas Fry of East Greenwich had from his father, Thomas Fry, Sr. On 14 July 1710, Thomas Fry deeded to his "cousin" John Spencer, for love, 13-1/2 rods for a burial place. This was John3 Spencer Jr., son of John2. It thus appears that both Spencer families of East Greenwich, those of John and Michael, were related in some way to Thomas Fry.
The notion that John Spencer of East Greenwich was nephew of John Spencer of Newbury has already been considered and dismissed as false in the first chapter of our account. We conclude that John was son of Michael1.
Children (incomplete record):
i. John2, b. say 1638; of age by 1661; d. 1684.
ii. Susannah, b. ca. 1643; deposed 12 Oct. 1725 ae. about 85; m. at Salem, Mass., 4 Aug. 1664, Daniel3 Bacon (Daniel2, Michael1) of Salem, b. ca. 1641. It is likely that Susannah lived at Salem with her mother and step-father. Both John2 and Michael2 Spencer named a dau. Susannah, though that was also the name of John2's wife and hence not evidential in his case.
iii. Michael, b. ca. 1648; d. 16 Mar. 1722/3.
iv. William, b. say 1652; d. 1712/13. He is placed in this family with great misgiving, and may not have been connected with the four brothers at all. If he was, he can only be placed as a son of Michael(1). He first appears of record in Saybrook in 1606, about the time he must have married. Since his wife was an East Haddam girl, and he later settled there, it has been surmised that his uncle Gerard1 took him there as a child. It will be noted that if a child of Michael and born in the last year of his father's life, he would have been 34 at marriage, and still older if born earlier."
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Bef 1621 - 1674 (> 53 years)
