When Audrey refers to the Spencer homestead, she was referring to the house, the existing cemetery and land that her great, great, great, great grandparents, William and Mary (nee Manchester) Spencer, purchased on April 16, 1750 from the Henry Straight family. They bought 56 ¾ acres of that farm including the buildings and cemetery. Audrey, as did her ancestors, referred to this purchase as the homestead and referred to this cemetery as “Over back Cemetery”.

“Over back cemetery”, was used prior to the Spencer Family Historical Cemetery (E.G. #9 on Middle Road at Partridge Run). “Over back Cemetery” is located 1,383 feet to the south of the Spencer Family Historical Cemetery and on the east side of the adjoining stonewall.

The ancestors moved the house (2266 Middle Road, East Greenwich, R.I.) down to Middle Road when Middle Road came through. At the same time, Audrey’s ancestors began a new cemetery on the north side of Middle Road to the east of the house and just east of present day street called Partridge Run.

Our four ancestors buried in “Over back Cemetery” are William and Mary and their eldest son, Richard, and daughter Elizabeth. William and son Richard died of smallpox in October of 1777 while the second son John was fighting in the American Revolution.