Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
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Posts Tagged Richard Anthony Spencer

19 June 2002

Heather: How did you know so much about your ancestors?

Richard Anthony (“Deacon”) Spencer

 

Audrey: Aunt Mandy, Deacon Richard Anthony’s daughter, told and wrote down much of the Spencer family history. She put a date on every paper. I remember my grandfather, John Johnson Spencer living in our household when I was a child.

The house on Spencer’s Corner (the corner of Division Street and Crompton Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island) descended to Deacon Richard (Richard Anthony “Deacon”) and then to his descendants. This house on Spencer’s Corner was where John Johnson and Anna Maria* Spencer’s three sons – William J.B.** Spencer, Alfred Ernest Spencer and Richard Augustus Spencer- were born.

William J.B. Spencer (Audrey’s father) was sent as a young boy to live and work the farm with his great-uncle Gus (William Augustus Spencer) at the Spencer Homestead on Middle Road. Uncle Gus had no sons, so William J.B. Spencer was to inherit that homestead on Uncle Gus’s death. Uncle Gus died when Aunt Edith (Edith Anna Spencer, Audrey’s older sister) was two years old. Uncle Gus was a mean man; Violet’s grandmother hated him so. Violet’s mother married John Jason Jolly who was William J.B. Spencer’s favorite great-uncle; John Jolly (Jason) Spencer was a perfect man.

*Anna Maria was Audrey Mae’s paternal grandmother.  The name Maria was pronounced Mar-eye-ah at that time in history. Audrey would spell her grandmother’s name as Anna Mirah (aka Myriah) because that was how it was pronounced and actually written in some legal documents.  Audrey was surprised to find out later in life that her grandmother’s name was actually Anna Maria.
**The initials J.B. in William J.B. Spencer stands for Joseph Briggs, the second husband of William J.B.’s maternal grandmother, Ann Almy (née Tarbox) Spencer.  Joseph Briggs gave $50.00 to his stepdaughter Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) to name her son after him.
23 October 2002

Heather: What do you remember about Anna Maria’s mother?

Audrey: Anna Maria’s mother, Ann Almy Tarbox Spencer, was kind of a nut, a high flyer. She was always going places and gallivanting around. When Richard Anthony Spencer, Anna Maria’s father died at age twenty-seven years, Richard Anthony’s sister Audra took care of Anna Maria (pronounced Anna Mar-eye-ah). Richard Anthony’s sister, our Aunt Mandy, and Anna Maria were good friends as there was only eight years difference in their age.
27 June 2004

Heather: Mother, Anna Maria’s father, Richard Anthony Spencer, died when he was less than thirty years old. What did he die from?

Audrey: I don’t know for sure. There was a story about climbing a tree and one fell. I do not know for sure.*

* Richard Anthony Spencer, Anna Maria’s father, died in New York on 5-27-1845, so more than likely Audrey’s comment on falling from tree refers to someone else.