Hannah (Unknown) Spencer (abt. 1618 - bef. 1685)

Born about 1618 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England [uncertain]

Wife of Gerard Spencer — married 1637 in Lynn, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 3 Sep 1685 before about age 67 in East Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Edward Nelson [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Michael Spencer [send private message], and April Dauenhauer [send private message]

Hannah (Unknown) Spencer migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Note: this profile is in need of a careful work to succinctly present documented information. ~ T Stanton 25 Jul 2022.

Children:^[1]

i. John(2), b. ca. 1636; d. 3 Aug 1682.

ii. Mehitabel, b. ca. 1638; d. 1691; m. by 1661, Daniel Cone of Haddam, b. ca. 1627, d. 24 Oct 1706 in 80th yr.; ten children.

iii. Hannah, b. ca. 1640; d. by 1691; m. ca. 1664, Daniel Brainerd of Haddam, b. ca. 1641, d. 1 Apr 1715 ae. 74. He m. (2) 29 Nov 1698, Hannah (Spencer) Sexton (No. 7, vii).

iv. Marah, b. ca. 1642; d. before 22 Dec 1714; m. (1) in 1662, Thomas Brooks, who d. at Haddam, 18 Oct 1668; four children; m. (2) in 1669, Thomas Shaylor of Haddam, who d. ca. 1692; five children.

v. Sarah, b. ca. 1644; living 1707; m. Dec 1666, Stephen Backus of Nowich, b. ca. 1642, d. at Canterbury, in 1695, son of William; eight children.

vi. Elizabeth, b. ca. 1646; m. ca. 1666, Joseph Stannard of Saybrook, who d. 20 Aug 1688.

vii. Thomas, b. ca. 1648; d. Feb 1698/9.

viii. Samuel, b. ca. 1650; d. 7 Aug 1705.

ix. Timothy, b. ca. 1652; d. 1704.

x. Ruth, b. ca. 1654; d. at Haddam, 28 Nov 1744 ae. 90; m. Joseph Clark, whose will dated 24 Oct 1716 is recorded in Haddam Deeds (2:255), son of William.

xi. William, b. ca. 1656; d. 1731.

xii. Nathaniel, b. ca. 1658; d. before 1722.

xiii. Rebecca, b. ca. 1660; d. before 1706; m. (1) ca. 1682, John Kennard of Haddam, who d. 1688; m. (2) after Feb 1689, John Tanner.

Hannah died Oct 1692 in Connecticut Colony.^{[citation needed]}

Research Notes

A discussion of her identity: Identity of Wife of Immigrant Gerard Spencer.^[2]

Is she Hannah Hills? And, if she is, what is her ancestry? I have seen on quite a few web pages that folks are showing Hannah Hills. The 1950 series of articles in TAG on this family only identified her as Hannah ________, and even then, the author said he was quoting a previous published work, that he himself, had not seen any indication of where this given name came from. What is the source, or reasoning that this lady is our "mom"?

The Town of Haddam Web Page shows Hannah Hills as the daughter of William Hills. That name appears on the list of original settlers of Windsor, Conn. However, William Hills was treated by Anderson in The Great Migration Begins and mentions no daughter named Hannah. The Spencers of the Great Migration Begins shows Hannah Hills as the wife, but only cites the IGI as a source. I don't believe this IGI is from a vital record, or researchers would have unearthed it by now, so I don't give it much credibility at this point.

Conclusion thus far: No evidence she was a Hills.

Notes from Jacobus^[1] Ensign Gerard(1) Spencer, baptized at Stotfold, Beds, England, 25 Apr 1614, died at Haddam, Conn., in 1685 (will 17 Sept 1683, proved 3 Sep 1685); married first, Hannah _____, who died before her husband made his will in 1683 and perhaps much earlier; perhaps married second, after 1677, Rebecca (Porter) Clark, baptized at Felsted, co. Essex, England, 16 Sep 1630, died 9 Jan 1682/3 (recorded at Saybrook), daughter of John and Anne (White) Porter of Windsor, and widow of John Clark of Saybrook.

Gerard settled in Lynn, Mass., later came to Hartford and thence to Haddam, Conn. There are several good accounts of him and his family in print, but some of them omit the daughter Sarah, proved by an undated deed in Haddam Deeds [1:49] given by "Steuen Backas with my wief Sarah of Norwich" to Daniel Brainerd of Haddam of one acre "that fell to us by portion of the estat of our fther Garrard Spencer."

The second marriage is suggested for Gerard because there was, by elimination, no other adult Spencer in Connecticut of proper age to be the widow Clark's husband (and unencumbered with a wife known to be living) except his brother Thomas, who was an older man and resident at a greater distance from Saybrook. Nevertheless, she may have been a third wife of Sergt. Thomas Spencer. All that the records disclose is that she died under the name of Spencer, and the loss of the early New London probate records where her estate was settled may leave it forever a matter of conjecture who her Spencer husband was. Gerard's will does not even name all his children, and lack of reference to a wife may be explained in either of two ways. A second wife may have been provided for by prenuptial agreement; or such a marriage may have occurred after the will was made.

Since the publication of Goodwin's Genealogical Notes in 1856, the early wife of Gerard who was mother of his children has always been named as Hannah.

The present compiler follows these authorities, though confessing that he has not seen an original or quoted contemporary record so naming her. Still, such a record may exist. The birth dates assigned to the children above are mostly guesses.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} The Four Spencer Brothers - Their Ancestors and Descendants, Donald Lines Jacobus, M.A., The American Genealogist, Vol 27 (April 1951), page 79.
2. ↑ Spencer, Sources and Resources, Research Notes, Questions and Errata, Norris Taylor. [1]

• Spencer: Family Bible Records, 1558-1913: (Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1985), FHL Film 1307619 Item 2
• A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. Attached.

• New England marriages prior to 1700, Ancestry.com. (Requires $$), U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2012. By Clarence Almon Torrey, Elizabeth Petty Bentley. Original data: Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. (Images Attached.)

• The Macdonough-Hackstaff Ancestry, by Rodney Macdonough, published 1901, at Internet Archive, database online. Image Attached, page 482

• Genealogical gleanings in England, By Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters. Attached.

• Our New England Ancestors and Their Descendants, Compiled by Henry Whittemore, New England Ancestral Publishing Co., 1900, at Internet Archive, database online. Images Attached, Pages 57 - 58.

• The Four Spencer Brothers - Their Ancestors and Descendants, (requires $$), Donald Lines Jacobus, M.A., The American Genealogist, Vol 27 (April 1951), page 79