Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Spencer, The Family
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Falls Township


THE SPENCER FAMILY About the year 1700, Samuel and William 
Spencer, quite young men, arrived in this country from 
England.  Tradition says they were spirited away to secure 
to another individual certain titles and estates, which 
would otherwise have been inherited by them.  Samuel, the 
older son, left Pennsylvania and settled in Virginia, in 
which state many of his descendants now reside.  William 
purchased a tract of over six hundred acres in Northampton 
township, extending from the Almshouse road to beyond the 
Bristol road, in Warminster township.  Soon after he 
disposed of over two hundred acres and received in return a 
Negro slave, whom he liberated and paid a regular salary. 
William married Elizabeth Lewis, from Montgomery county.  
His children were:  James, Thomas, Ann, Sarah, Samuel, 
Enoch, Job and Abel.  Thomas and Samuel inherited from their 
father over two hundred acres each and settled on their 
farms.  William Spencer died in 1756 and his widow in 1797, 
aged 84 years.  Thomas died in 1811, aged 75 years.  He 
married Mary Hollowell, of Montgomery county, and had seven 
children:  William, born 1761; Mary, born 1764; Thomas and 
Elizabeth (twins), born 1767; Margaret, born 1770; Amos, 
born 1773; and Sarah, born 1775.  All lived and died in 
Bucks county except Sarah, who married Isaac Hollowell, of 
Montgomery county. Samuel had two sons, who inherited about 
one hundred acres each.  Samuel, the eldest, died in New 
Jersey.  John, his brother, sold his portion to John Bready 
and bought a farm in Northampton, on which he died.  Of the 
children of Thomas, son of William, the eldest married his 
cousin, Margaret Spencer, and had four daughters:  Mary, 
Sarah, Margaret and Elizabeth, all of whom died unmarried.  
William, the father, died in 1840.  The second child, Mary, 
married Isaac Walton, of Warwick township, and had one 
child, Sarah, a highly esteemed young woman, who died when 
she was about 20 years of age.  The next child, Thomas, 
married Esther Worthington, of Wrightstown, and had five 
children:  Mary, William, Thomas, Esther and Lewis.  William 
and Lewis died young, and Mary and esther without issue.  
Thomas married a Miss Burns and had one child, Elizabeth, 
who married William Bennett.  They have three daughters 
living.  Margaret, the third daughter of the elder Thomas, 
married William Worthington.  They had six children:  
Thomas, Mary, William, Jesse, Esther and Spencer.  Margaret 
Worthington died in 1802.  Amos, the third son of Thomas, 
the elder, married Anna, daughter of Thomas Brown, who came 
from Ireland about the year 1770 and followed teaching.  He 
was a fine scholar and an efficient teacher.  Amos Spencer 
died in 1857 and his wife in 1844.  From Amos and Anna 
Spencer nearly all the family at present residing in the 
county are descended.  Thomas B., the eldest, was born in 
1798 and died in 1869, unmarried.  Sarah, the second, was 
born in 1801 and died, unmarried, in 1882.  John G., the 
third, was born in 1803 and followed teaching many years.  
In 1833 he entered the mercantile business at Springville.  
In 1834 he married Elizabeth, daughter of George Fetter, of 
Montgomery county.  In 1840 he purchased a store property, 
where he now resides, in Oxford Valley.  In 1873 he built a 
residence in the village for himself and turned over his 
business to his second son, C. Watson.  His wife died in 
1880, since which he has resided with his eldest son, Amos 
L. and wife.  He has four children living:  Arnie Ann, who 
married William R. Vandegrift, and they have eight children 
living.  The second, Amos L., is a graduate of the 
Westchester State Normal school, and for the last six years 
he has had charge of the grammar school at Langhorne.  He 
married Louisa, daughter of Owen Knight, of Somerton, 
Philadelphia.  The third, C. Watson, married Angeline, 
daughter of I. W. Gerhart, of Northampton township, and has 
five children.  He carries on the mercantile business at 
Oxford Valley.  The youngest child, G. Franklin, married 
Mary E., daughter of Lewis Darrah, of Middletown.  They have 
three children.  William H., the third son of Amos and Anna, 
married Sarah, daughter of Christopher Search, of 
Southampton, by whom he had six children, of whom only three 
are now living.  He resides in Maryland.  Charles, the 
fourth son of Amos and Anna, married Elizabeth Porter, of 
Northampton, and had three sons and three daughters.  He 
followed carriage-making a few years, then farmed until his 
death in 1880.  His three sons, Orrin, James and Albert, are 
all married and have children. None of the daughters 
married.  Alice, the only one living, resides with her 
mother.  The sons are all farmers and residents of the 
county.  James, the fifth son of Amos, married Matilda 
Dunlap.  He died in 1876, without issue.  Mary B., the 
second daughter of Amos and Anna, resides in Philadelphia 
with her husband, Henry Land.  They have no children. Isaac 
W., the youngest child of Amos and Anna, married Louisa, 
daughter of John Jamison, of Warwick, by whom he had one 
son, John J., who married a Miss Myers, and is a justice of 
the peace at Jamison.  Isaac W. died in 1868. The Spencer 
family formerly were all members of the Society of Friends.  
Many have united with other denominations.  Nearly all have 
been farmers.  John G. was school director twenty-six years, 
and has been postmaster at Oxford Valley ever since the 
office was established in 1849.  John J. has been a justice 
of the peace for several years.