The Spencer Shops

My paternal grandparents were master craftspeople, running the premier woodworking shop in Hartford, Connecticut during the 17th and 18th centuries. Their handiwork produced exquisite furniture that stands as a testament to their artistry. Below I’ve included brief biographies of these gifted ancestors along with links to view some of the beautiful chairs attributed to their Spencer and Spencer-King workshops. Take a moment to admire the elegant lines and intricate details of their designs, passed down through generations of dedicated artisans. Their legacy of fine craftsmanship lives on in these striking pieces. The first chair noted, sold by Sotheby’s at auction, carried an estimate of $10-15,000!

Thomas Spencer (1607-1687) – My 9^th great-grandfather

Thomas Spencer was one of four brothers who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England arriving in 1633, first living in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then moving to Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. Thomas served in the Pequot War alongside Nicholas Disbrowe and later both of them had a long association as fellow woodworkers.

Nicholas Disbrowe (1612-1683) – My 9^th great-grandfather

Nicholas Disbrowe (Disborough/Desborough) was a carpenter/joiner/cabinetmaker from Essex, England and was an original founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Nicholas was one of the earliest known American furniture makers and is famous for the Hartford Chest. “Disbrowe was no ordinary carver and his designs are distinguished by undulating bands of carved tulips flowing from stiles to rails without breaking, Disbrowe’s designs were carefully worked out to fit the individual piece and no two pieces were identical.”

Obadiah Spencer Jr. (1666-1741) – My 7^th great-grandfather

Obadiah, a joiner and a turner, was the grandson of Thomas Spencer. It is believed that Obadiah may have been trained as a turner by his paternal grandfather, Thomas, and as a joiner by his maternal grandfather, Nicholas Disbrowe. His uncle, Gerard Spencer (1650-1712), was also a skilled carpenter.

Obadiah’s father was Obadiah Spencer Sr. (1638-1712) and mother Mary Disbrowe (1641-1709), the daughter of Nicholas.

“Obadiah’s shop produced fashionable turned chairs with shaped and carved crest rail and other decorative options in imitation of the sophisticated banister-back and cane-back seating furniture made in Boston.” (source: Sotheby’s). These chairs are products of the Deerfield, Connecticut turning tradition related to the Spencer-King workshops. of Hartford, Connecticut, was the grandson of Thomas Spencer (1607-1687), Hartford’s leading turner during the seventeenth century, and the principal leading joiner.”

Chair #1 Circa 1750 – Sotheby’s

“Important William and Mary Black-Painted Carved and Turned Maple Bannister-Back Armchair, Attributed to the Spencer Family Shop, Hartford area, Connecticut.”

Description: It is a rare example of William and Mary seating furniture from the Connecticut River Valley with a fan and rosette carved crest rail and spool shaped finials. The armchair is attributed to the Spencer family workshop of Hartford since it displays distinctive characteristics associated with that shop. These include the placement of the banisters with the rounded side against the sitter’s back, the shaped rail below that terminates in carved volutes, and the turned rails between the arm supports and the seat rails.

Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium

Chair #2 Circa 1790-1820

Description: One of a pair of slat-back side chairs supported by turned posts surmounted with the spool finial characteristic of Deerfield area craftsmanship, and fit with the original, woven split ash seat.

Chair #3 Circa 1740

Description: Bannister-back side chair, painted black, attributed to the Spencer family workshop of Hartford, Connecticut. The chair has a solid arched crest rail; four turned banisters with the round side facing forward; flattened arch-shaped bottom rail; ball finials over similarly turned back stiles; trapezoidal rush seat; block-and-vase turned front posts ending in small modified Spanish feet; high front stretcher with vase-and-ring turnings in the center and three similarly-turned side and back stretchers; and plain back legs that are slightly flared near the floor.

***Chair #4 – Circa 1740***

Description: Attributed to the Spencer family workshop. Bannister-back armchair with rush seat, covered overall with black and gold paint. The armchair has a solid arched crest rail; four turned banisters with the round side facing forward; shaped bottom rail; gilded ball finials on a vase shape over the two turned side rails; two plain arms ending in scrolled handhold; rush seat; turned front posts ending in small peg feet; high front stretcher with two turned ball in the center; and three turned side and back stretchers. The chair was originally painted red and later repainted black and gold, which was possibly added to compete with the fancy chairs being manufactured in the nineteenth century by Hitchcock and others.

Note: The Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium is an amazing database of objects from the collections of seven museums in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts: the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Historic Deerfield, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Joseph Allen Skinner Museum of Mount Holyoke College, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Yes, I am Posthumous (Sikes)

“Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Suffield, Connecticut, 1921. (Photo p.173)

Perhaps the most unusual name in my family tree (other than Bygod/Beget Eggleston) is Posthumous Sikes, the grandson of my 7th great-grandfather Victory Sikes (1649-1708). Posthumous, a farmer in Suffield, CT., is my 1st cousin 7x removed.

According to a post entitled, Posthumous Sikes House, Suffield Connecticut, “The early Puritan settlers of New England would often give their children seemingly unconventional names, often preferring “Increase,” “Thankful,” and “Deliverance” to more Catholic-sounding names like Mary, James, and Peter. In the case of “Posthumous,” it was often given to a child born after the death of his father, and for Posthumous Sikes, he was born in 1711, seven months after his father Jonathan died. Posthumous married Rachel Adams around the same time that he built this house, and they had four children: Amos, Stephen, Shadrack, and Gideon. Posthumous died in 1756, and his son Shadrack later owned the property. The house appears to have remained in the Sikes family until at least the mid-1800s.”

Lost New England – July 9, 2015 by Derek Strahan

If it is not already on your frequent reading list, the Lost New England site is a great blog focusing on New England history.

Questions, Comments and Corrections are Appreciated

Oh Abiram, How I Have Searched

After almost two decades, I was unable to uncover the identity of the parents of my 3^rd great paternal grandfather, Abiram Spencer (1812-1871). I’ve wrote stories about where he lived, how he made a living, his strong support for the Union during the Civil War, his election to the Hartford city council, and even had a copy of his wedding photograph with his beautiful wife Annie (Bottom of page: Posts and photograph).

I looked for any trace of Abiram across the Northeast states, every corner of Connecticut, Ohio (CT Western Reserve), and (heck) even the islands of Caribbean! Births, deaths, marriages, wills, land grants and found absolutely nothing.

Until a 5^th cousin – 1x removed popped up, on Ancestry.com, as being a DNA match to me. His 5^th great grandfather Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) of Hartford, Connecticut had two sons, Daniel and William. The DNA match descended from Daniel.

Daniel Jr.’s son William had a son named Abiram! I confirmed that William was the father of (my) Abiram through William’s will (above) where he notes his “beloved son Abiram.” Note: William’s full name is Joseph William Spencer, the name Joseph comes from a sibling that died in infancy. He used the name William in all of the documents associated with him.

I now have eight new generations of Spencer’s (below) to research and hopefully many stories to tell!

William Spencer (1780-1851) – Lois Hoskins (1780-1860)

Daniel Spencer Jr. (1738-1818) – Sarah Lord ((1743-1819)

Daniel Spencer Sr. (1705-1780) – Elizabeth Stiles (1705-1803)

Obadiah Spencer Jr. (1666-1741) – Ruth Kelsey (1669-1767)

Obadiah Spencer Sr. (1638-1712) – Mary Desborough (1641-1709)

Thomas Spencer (1607 – 1687) – Sarah Bearding (1623-1685)

Thomas Spencer (my 9th gg), was one of four brothers who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633, first living in Cambridge and moving to Hartford, CT in 1660 where — 152 years later, his 5th great grandson Abiram was born!

Gerald Spencer (1576-1645) – Alice Whitebread (1571-1628)

Michael Spencer (1531 – 1599) – Elizabeth ?

Posts about Abiram

Introducing Annie + John W. Spencer

Spencer Family – Hartford, Connecticut

Integrity of the Union

Wide-Awakes for Abraham Lincoln!

Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.

Integrity of the Union

1861 Print – Shows American eagle in its nest of the American flag, which holds 34 eggs representing the states; the eggs representing the Southern states are cracked, rotten, or have various animals being hatched from them; the eagle says “Annihilation to traitors.” (Library of Congress)

My 3rd great-grandfather, Abiram Spencer (1812-1871) has been the subject of several posts including one about his election to the Hartford, CT City Council in 1860 on the Republican ticket (Wide-Awakes for Abraham Lincoln!). Abiram was one of the over 1,000 men in Hartford signed this (below) petition in November of 1861. The closing line, “Apologists for secession, and sympathizers with treason are not invited” points to the heated emotions of this country in the early months of the Civil War.

Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.

Connecticut “the Georgia of the North” – Witness to Slavery

The above clipping from the Hartford Courant makes reference to my 4th great-grandfather, Bildad Fowler, witnessing a bill of sale for the purchase of a slave (Pegg) in 1761 in Hartford, Connecticut. Bildad was a local farmer who later served in the Revolutionary War, he was not a slave owner. Just how and why he was present at the time to witness the signing of this document is not documented.

At the time of the American Revolution, Connecticut had more enslaved Africans than any other state in New England. In 1784 Connecticut passed an act of Gradual Abolition, which stated that those children born into slavery after March 1, 1784 would be freed by the time they turned 25. It did not free the mother, the father, or any other adults. (From the State Historian: Connecticut’s Slow Steps Toward Emancipation)

The bill of sale, donated to the Hartford Library, was in the papers of William Lloyd Garrison, a leading white abolitionist and founder of the influential American Anti-Slavery Society “In defending the rights not only of enslaved Americans in the 19th century, but also women and Native Americans, William Lloyd Garrison modeled activism that just as easily applies to the 21st century. “(Article on the Saturday Evening Post) Quote by Garrison – Connecticut “the Georgia of the North”

Who’s Who in the Bill of Sale?

Caleb Turner (Sold Pegg to Benjamin Payne) – Records indicate that Turner owned at least 5 slaves in Hartford during this time period.

Benjamin Payne (Purchased Pegg) – Benjamin Payne is also on record in 1772 as selling to Samuel Forbes of Canaan in the colony of Connecticut one Negro woman by the name of Minnah, about twenty-one years old, for the sum of fifty-two pounds, ten shillings (right. bill of sale). Payne, a lawyer, was a deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly, clerk for the House and the Governor, and during the Revolutionary War was a member of the Council of Safety, Committee of Correspondence and Committee of Prisoners. Below is an reward issued by Payne for the return of a capture British soldier.

Connecticut Courant Newspaper – May 12, 1777

Runaway: Michael Burn, Hartford, CT. Reward: Not Specified

Transcription: Escaped from the barrack at Hartford last night, one Michael Burn, belonging to Col. Brown’s brigade in the British service, lately taken at Danbury: He is a native of Ireland, about 35 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches high, sandy short hair, […] on the fore part of his head, grey eyes, a little glaring, red complexion, thin visage, large nose, a weaver by trade, speaks very harsh, pretends to a smattering of Latin and Greek, has a comfortable number of books with him, among which are Homer’s Illiad, Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Lillia’s Grammar, &c. He wore off a snuff colour’d coat and vest, white drilling […]. Whoever apprehends said deserter and returns him to Hartford, shall receive a proper reward, and necessary charges paid, by BENJAMIN PAYNE, Committee for Prisoners. Hartford, April 9, 1777.

Valentine Vaughn (Witness) – The only reference to Valentine that I discovered was from May 1766. To celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act, “a number of young gentlemen were preparing fire works for the evening, in the chamber of the large brick school house, under which a quantity of powder granted by the Assembly for the purposes of the day, was deposited. Two companies of militia had just received a pound a man, by the delivery of which a train was scattered from the powder cask to the distance of three rods from the house, where a number of boys were collected, who undesignedly and unnoticed, set fire to the scattered powder, which was soon communicated to that within doors, and in an instant reduced the building to a heap of rubbish (six dead), and buried the following persons in its ruins, …Valentine Vaughn had his skull terribly broken. (A Celebration Turned Tragic)

Comments, corrections and and suggestions appreciated.

Where there is a Will

*Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) · 18 Jul 1878, Thu · Page 2*

Above is a probate notice from 18 July 1878 that notes a bequest of $2,000 from Jason Goodwin (J.G.) Eggleston to his grand-niece Anna Eggleston Spencer. Anna is my second great grandmother. $2,000 in 1879 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $51,351.80 in 2019. Thank you great-uncle! Jason was the co-owner of Eggleston & Rowley Grocery located at 286 Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut.

Link to a previous post about Anna: Introducing Annie and John Spencer

Another benefactor in the will is the Reverend Nathaniel Eggleston who received $1,000. I wrote an earlier post (Rev. Eggleston’s Woods) about Nathaniel who was appointed chief of the Bureau of Forestry (now the United States Forest Service) from 1883-1886.

If you are interested in researching your family history, newspaper accounts can provide a wealth of information. The above referenced clipping was discovered through Newspapers.com by Ancestry.