Eunice Spencer was the grandmother of my grandfather, George Wesley Udell. She was born in Claremont (Pickering) Ontario in 1819, and was the daughter of George D. Spencer and Mary Ann Wixson. George D. Spencer was born[i][ii]on 27 December 1797 in East Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut. Eunice died in 1853 and is buried in an unknown location in Pickering. Mary Ann Wixson was born[iii] in Pickering on 9 November 1802, daughter of Joseph Wixson and Deborah Townsend. A lot of the Wixson’s moved to Michigan in the mid 19th century. Eunice Spencer’s husband, John Udell, also moved to Michigan in 1856 and is buried in the Melvin Cemetery, Brown City, Michigan.

Eunice Spencer married[iv] John Udell of Pickering on 23 December 1840 in Markham, Ontario. They had four children, George, Mary Jane, Katherine and my great-grandfather John Eli Udell. Eunice died around 1853 and my great-great-grandfather John Udell married a second time, Margaret Westunberger, and had more children.

Eunice Spencer had at least 16 great-grandfathers who arrived in the wave of Puritans in between 1620 and 1640. The flood of puritans began with the settlement of the Plymouth Colony when several ships, including the Mayflower, landed there on 9 November 1620.

A puritan lawyer John Winthrop was one of the leading figures in the establishment and settlement of the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. In October of 1629 he was elected Governor of the colony.

Sergeant Thomas Spencer, Eunice Spencer’s great-grandfather, was baptized on 29 March 1607 in Stotfold, Bedfordshire and died on 11 September 1687 in Hartford, Connecticut. He and three of his brothers came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas in 1633 settling at Cambridge. Thomas Spencer was made a Freeman on 14 May 1634 and moved to Hartford in 1636. He served as a Sergeant in the Pequot War in 1637 and married Ann Derifield in 1639. Thomas served on the Petit Jury in 1650, through 1652, and 1655, 1661 and 1662. He was the Sergeant of the train band and Chimney Viewer in 1650, was appointed Constable on 4 March 1657/58 and Surveyor of Highways in 1672. Thomas Spencer is one of the Founders of Hartford, Connecticut.

Because of his puritan beliefs Reverend Thomas Hooker had also escaped England by way of the Netherlands arriving in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1633 onboard the ship “Griffin”. Along with him was Reverend Samuel Stone, his assistant. Samuel Stone was one of Eunice Spencer’s great-grandfathers. Samuel was baptised on 30 July 1602 in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England. He matriculated at Cambridge University, Emmanuel College Easter 1620, received his B.A in 1624 and his M.A. in 1627. Samuel served as a teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts before moving to Hartford in 1636.

In 1636 voting in Massachusetts was limited to freemen, those who had been accepted as such by their church. Reverend Thomas Hooker disagreed with this limitation of suffrage. This put him at odds with the prominent settler John Cotton. Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone led a group of about 100 persons which founded the settlement of Hartford, named after Stone’s birth place. This led to the establishment of the colony of Connecticut. Thomas Hooker is now called the father of Connecticut. Samuel Stone went on to lead Thomas Hooker’s congregation after he died. Going with them in 1636 were James Ensign and Deacon Richard Butler, both great-grandfathers of Eunice Spencer and also original founders[v] of Hartford.

James Ensign was baptized in Rye, Sussex, England in June 1606 and died before 23 December 1670 in Hartford, Connecticut. He had emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, where he was made a “Freeman” on 4 March 1634/5. James married Sarah Elson in about 1630. He was on the Connecticut Petit Jury in 1655, 1656, 1658 and 1661. He was appointed Constable on 6 March 1661.2. On 12 February 1669/70 he was seventh in the list of “brethren in full communion” and his wife was eighth on the “list of sisters in full communion”.

Deacon Richard Butler was born circa 1610 in Braintree, Essex, England and died on 6 August 1684 in Hartford, Connecticut. He emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in about 1633, his brother William is also a founder of Hartford. He came to Hartford with the Rev Thomas Hooker congregation and received land in 1639/40. Richard married Elizabeth Bigelow in about 1640 and his son Sergeant Thomas Buter married Sarah Stone, daughter of Rev. Samuel Stone. Richard was a Deacon in Reverend Hooker’s congregation, along with being a Deputy for Hartford to the Connecticut Court in 1659 and 1660. He was on the Petit Jury on 15 June 1643 and on the Grande Jury on 17 May 1660.

Eunice Spencer’s mother Mary Ann Wixson was a descendant of Robert Wixom of Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts. Robert Wixom came to Massachusetts in 1630 at the age of seven in the Winthrop Fleet. He was an indentured servant to Captain William Hedge[vi]. In 1638 the remaining portion of his contract[vii] was sold to Governor Thomas Prence. Thomas Prence was the third Governor, following William Bradford, of the Plymouth Colony and had arrived on the Fortune in November of 1621. Robert was chosen a surveyor in 1655, 1674 1675 and 1676. He was a Constable in 1666. Robert died[viii] in October of 1686. Robert’s daughter married the grandson of Thomas Prence. Robert was sworn a Freeman on 5 June 1651. Robert married Alice Aspinet, the daughter of Chief Nauset Aspinet of the Nauset Tribe (Algonquin). The following is from a book called Cape Cod Indians:

“Robert Wixon, a white man, married the daughter of Chief Aspinet and we find that many of his children, grand, great, and great-great-grandchildren, married with Indians, so that early in the eighteen hundreds’ the white blood was extinct, but the name stayed. However, as the red man's population decreased and the white men increased, it necessitated the family to again intermarry with the "Cape Cod Yankees". One of these Indians, a Potanamaquit ("village on the Herring River") Nauset, fought in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, losing a leg in the service of the country. He returned to Potanamaquit to marry a white woman. His son, Captain Job Wixon, was a renowned sea captain of Brewster.”

Robert and Alice’s had a son, Barnabas Wixon, his Indian name was Pompwono. Chief Nauset Aspinet was the Chief that encountered the Mayflower pilgrims, and, he and his people brought food to the first Thanksgiving Celebration. Barnabas’s son Joshua had a son Solomon who married Mary Randall of Poughkeepsie, New York. She was a great-granddaughter of John Randall, great-grandfather of Eunice, who had arrived in 1666 in Newport, Rhode Island but moved to Westerly in 1667.

Eunice Spencer’s great-grandfather, Deacon Joseph Easton, was also a “Hartford Founder”. Joseph was born about 1614 in England and died 19 August 1688 in Hartford, Connecticut. Joseph had emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 and moved to Hartford in 1639. He was a deacon in the Hartford church and was Constable in 1658.

Benjamin Crisp, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born in about 1611 in England. He came on board the ship “Plough” in 1631 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He likely came as an Indentured Servant to Major Edward Gibbons He was admitted a “Freeman” on 6 May 1646. He must have had some education as he signed his name in 1666. Around 1666 he moved to Groton. He died in Watertown between 5 November and 21 December 1683.

Francis Baker, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born in about 1615 in England. The first record of Francis in New England was when he was admitted to dwell at Yarmouth, Massachusetts in 1641. He settled near Follens Pond, at the head of Bass River in Nobesussett Territory, now located in Dennis. In 1641 the first “white man’s” house there was two years old. He married Isabel Twining in Yarmouth on 17 June 1641, the first known marriage of record in Yarmouth. He married a second time to Anne Doane.

Francis Weekes, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born about 1616 in England. Francis arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1635. He was in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1636. In 1641 he was in New Amsterdam and in 1648 in Gravesend (now a part of Brooklyn, New York). Francis was in Hempstead, New York in 1657 and then moved to Oyster Bay on Long Island. Francis married Elizabeth and one of his daughters, Elizabeth, married Nicolas Simpkins. Francis Weekes died after 3 February 1689.

Nicholas Simpkins, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born about 1630 in Massachusetts, currently the names of his parents are not known. Nicholas married Elizabeth Weekes.

William Twining, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, arrived in Plymouth and was in Yarmouth by 1641. He was able to bear arms in Yarmouth in 1643. He moved to Eastham in 1645, living near Town Cove. In that same year he served against the Narragansetts, he was Constable in Eastham in June 1651. William, or his son, was admitted a “Freeman” on 3 June 1652. He died in Eastham on 15 April 1659.

John Lawrence, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born about 1610 in England. He is said to have been a carpenter, but was a husbandman as well. By 1636 he was living in Watertown, Middlesex County Massachusetts and was one of its first proprietors. He married Elizabeth in 1635 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. In 1636/37 he was made a “Freeman” and admitted to the Watertown church in 1637. In 1658 he was a Constable at Watertown. In 1662 he sold his property and moved to Groton. In 1662 and 1666 he was chosen a Selectman at Groton. John died on 11 July 1667 at Groton.

William Chase Senior, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born about 1605 n England, likely in Essex. He married a wife by the name of Mary. There is a record of a son William, son of William Chase and Mary, being christened 27 October 1622 in Chelmsford. He came to New England in 1630 as part of Winthrop’s Fleet. Rev. John Elliot in the First Church of Roxbury, Massachusetts noted “William Chase, he came with the first company, 1630.” William was admitted a “Freeman” 14 May 1634 at the Massachusetts Bay Colony. William lived in Roxbury from 1630 to 1638. He then moved to Yarmouth. William was a Housewright. William died in Yarmouth in mid-May 1659.

Sylvester Baldwin Junior, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born about 1600 in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England. He died at sea aboard the ship “Martin” on his way to America in June of 1638. His wife Sarah Bryan and her surviving children were on board with him at his death. One of the surviving children, John Baldwin, settled in Stonington Connecticut and married Rebecca Palmer, daughter of Walter Palmer and Rebecca Short.

Christopher Smith, another great-grandfather of Eunice, was born about 1591 in England. He was a member of the Society of Friends in Providence, Rhode Island. He married Alice Gibbes in Stratford-upon-Avon, England on 1 May 1616. Christopher first appears in the records of Providence on 2 September 1650. He was included in a list of “Freemen” in Providence in 1655. His granddaughter, Sarah Smith, married John Spencer of Hartford, Connecticut.

Rebecca Short, Eunice Spencer’s great-grandmother, was born in England about 1610. Roxbury, Massachusetts church records say Rebecca was a maid servant, that she came in the year 1632 and married Walter Palmer. Walter and Rebecca were admitted to the first church in Charlestown 1 June 1633. Rebecca died at Stonington, Connecticut on 15 July 1671.

Finally, Walter Palmer, great-grandfather of Eunice Spencer, was born in October 1585 likely in Dorset and died on 19 November 1661 in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut. The “History of Stonington and Genealogies” states that Walter came as “Early as 1628”. However, in other documents it states that Walter, and his brother Abraham, arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 on board the “Four Sisters”, which was accompanied by the Mayflower. He had five children by a first marriage in England. On 1 June 1633 Walter married[ix] as his second wife Rebecca Short. Rebecca had arrived from England in 1632.

Walter travelled through the wilderness and built a house in what they called Charlestown. The next year he was indicted for manslaughter for allegedly beating a man to death, but was acquitted in November 1630. He was reported to be a big man, 6 foot 5 inches tall, which would have been tall for the time. He met William Cheesebrough and they set up a new township called Rehoboth. Walter was admitted a Freeman on 18 May 1631. They then moved to a new area and established Stonington. The first church service in Stonington, Connecticut was held in Walter Palmer’s house. He is considered one of the Founders of Stonington, Connecticut.

[i] Donald Lines Jacobus; The America Genealogist, Picton Press, Camden Maine 1989 Volume 28, page 122

[ii] Connecticut Town Birth Records (Barbour Collection).

[iii] J.H. Wixom & Ruth S. Widdison; Wixom Family History; page 19.

[iv] Marriage Register of Reverend William Jenkins of Richmond Hill #745.

[v] Website of the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford.

[vi] Josiah Paine, Early Settlers of Eastham; Containing Sketches of All Early Settlers of Eastham, published 1836; page 20.

[vii] 1668 Memorandum.

[viii] Josiah Paine, Early Settlers of Eastham; Containing Sketches of All Early Settlers of Eastham, published 1836; page 20.

[ix] Richard Anson Wheeler; History of Stonington and Genealogies; page 507.