Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

ings connected therewith. He is also a
member of the executive committee of
the Connecticut Peace Society, whose
members give unqualified support to the
government in the prosecution of the war
in the interests of humanity, but hope and
strive for a day when the sword shall
not be drawn until arbitration between
nations has failed to prevent the horrors
of war. Colonel Thompson is president
of the Thompson Family Association,
which holds biennial meetings with an
attendance of about two hundred descendants
of their pioneer ancestors, William
and Mary Thompson, of Scotland.
SPENCER, Charles Luther,
Banker.
A worthy scion of one of New England's
oldest Colonial families, Mr. Spen-
cer exemplifies in his life and career the
qualities of determination, stability and
industry which founded this Nation under
most trying conditions in a struggle
with savage foes and an unbroken wild-
erness. The Spencer family is one of the
oldest in Connecticut, and has been
traced back through eleven generations
to Michael and Elizabeth Spencer, who
were residents of Stratford, in Bedford-
shire, England, in the middle of the six-
teenth century.
Their son, Jared Spencer, was baptized
in Stratford, May 20, 1576. He came
with his wife Alice and five sons to America
in 1632, and located at Cambridge,
Massachusetts. One of the sons, John,
returned to England, one remained in
Cambridge, two settled at Hartford, and
one in Haddam, Connecticut.
Thomas Spencer, the eldest, known as
Sergeant Thomas Spencer, the progenitor
of the Suffield branch of the family, was
born March 27, 1607, in Stratford. In
1635 he and his brother William came to
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
187
Flartford with Rev. Thomas Hooker's
company. He was an inhabitant of Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, as early as 1633,
and is supposed to have been the Thomas
Spencer who took the freeman's oath,
May 14, 1634. In 1639 he had become a
resident of Hartford, Connecticut, owned
land there and was chosen a sergeant
of Hartford, March 7, 1650. He was
chimney-viewer in 1650; constable in
1657, and surveyor of highways in 1672.
He owned land in Soldier's Field, indi-
cating that he had served in the Pequot
War in 1637, and in 1671 was granted
sixty acres of land by the General Court
"for his good service in the country."
His will was dated September 9, 1686,
and he died September 11, 1687. Nothing
is known of his first wife except that she
was the mother of Thomas Spencer.
Thomas Spencer, born in Hartford, set-
tled in Suffield in time to be a voter at
the first town meeting. There he engaged
in farming until his death, July 23, 1689.
He married Esther, daughter of William
Andrews. She died in Suffield, March
6, 1698.
Their second son, Samuel Spencer, was
born in Suffield, where he was a farmer,
and died November 23, 1743. He married,
March 18, 1700, Elizabeth, daughter
of Daniel Mascroft, of Roxbury, Mas-
sachusetts, and they had two sons,
Thomas and Daniel.
The senior son, Thomas Spencer, was
born January 13, 1702, in Suffield, was a
farmer, served as lieutenant in the French
and Indian War, and died February 4,
1754. He married, December 15, 1720,
Mary Trumbull, born December 2, 1701,
daughter of John and Elizabeth (Winchell)
Trumbull. She was a descendant
of John Trumbull, a cooper, who came to
New England from Newcastle-on-Tyne,
settled at Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1640,
and filled the offices of town clerk and