Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Spencer, Asa
SPENCER, Asa, soldier, b. in Salisbury, Conn.,
in September, 1747; d. in Fort Covington, N. Y.,
in 1828. The first ancestor of the Spencer family,
William, came from England to Cambridge, Mass.,
in 1631, and again in 1633 with his brothers,
Thomas and Jared. William and Thomas were
among the first settlers of Hartford, Conn., the
former being a landed proprietor, a select-man of
the town, and a deputy of the general court of
Connecticut in 1639. He prepared the first revisal
of the laws of that colony, and died in Hartford in
1640. His descendant in the fifth generation, Asa,
served throughout the war of the Revolution, and
was under Gen. Anthony Wayne at the storming
of Stony Point. He early espoused the principles
of Democracy under Thomas Jefferson.—His son,
James Bradley, soldier, b. in Salisbury, Conn.,
26 April, 1781; d. in Fort Covington, N. Y., 26
March, 1848, was an early settler of Franklin
county, N. Y., raised a company for the war of
1812, and served as captain in the 29th U. S.
infantry at Plattsburg. Subsequently he was county
judge and surrogate, and held other local offices
in Fort Covington, served in the legislature in
1831-'2, and was elected to congress as a
Democrat, serving from 4 Sept., 1837, till 3 March,
1839.—Another son, Abner Peck, settled with his
father and brother at Fort Covington, was captain
in the 29th U. S. infantry in 1812, and, remaining
in the army, was appointed military governor of
Arkansas.—James Bradley's son, James Clark,
jurist, b. in Fort Covington, Franklin co., N. Y.,
29 May, 1826, studied law, was admitted to the bar
in 1848, and practised in his native town and in
Ogdensburg until 1865, serving as U. S. district
attorney for four years. He then removed to New
York and entered into partnership with Charles
A. Rapallo. From 1869 till 1872 he was a judge
of the superior court of New York, afterward
practising law until 1883, when he was appointed an
aqueduct commissioner.—William's descendant in
the fifth generation, Ambrose, jurist, b. in Salisbury,
Conn., 13 Dec., 1765; d. in Lynns, N. Y., 13
March, 1848, was educated at Yale and Harvard,
where he was graduated in 1783. He studied law
under John Canfield, of Sharon, Conn., and settled
in Hudson, N. Y., where he was appointed city
clerk in 1786. He was elected to the assembly in
1793 and in 1795 to the state senate, serving until
1798, when he was re-elected for four years. He
was the author of a bill, which became a law, to
abolish capital punishment in all cases except
those of treason and murder, substituting imprisonment
and hard labor. He also secured the erection
of a state prison near New York city. In 1796
he was appointed assistant attorney-general of
Columbia and Rensselaer counties, and in 1802-'4 he
was attorney-general of the state. In 1804 he
became a justice of the supreme court, of which he was chief justice from 1819 till 1823. In 1808 he
was chosen by the legislature, with Peter J. Munro,
to prepare and report such reforms in the chancery
system of the state as they should deem expedient.
Judge Spencer possessed energy, resolution, and
high legal attainments, and was a master of equity
jurisprudence. He served as a presidential elector
in 1809. He was the warm friend of De Witt Clinton,
but separated from him on the question of the
war of 1812, and in that year was active in the
struggle to prevent the charter of the six-million
bank. He was a member of the State constitutional
convention of 1821. After he resumed the
practice of law in Albany he held various local
offices, and was mayor of that city in 1824-'6. He
was then elected to congress, serving from 7 Dec.,
1829, till 3 March, 1831, and during his term united
with William Wirt and other philanthropists in
endeavoring to arrest the injustice of the government
toward the Cherokees. In 1839 he removed
to Lyons, N. Y., where he engaged in agriculture.
He was president of the Whig national convention
in Baltimore in 1844. The University of Pennsylvania
gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1819 and
Harvard the same in 1821. His last public act was
to address a letter to his fellow-citizens in opposition
to a proposed amendment to the constitution
providing for an elective judiciary with brief terms
of office. His decisions are contained in the “New
York Supreme Court Reports. 1799-1803,” edited
by William Johnson (3 vols., New York, 1808-'12),
and “New York Chancery Reports” (1814-'23). See
“Memorial” of Ambrose Spencer (Albany, 1849).—His
son, John Canfield, lawyer, b. in Hudson,
N. Y., 8 Jan., 1788; d. in Albany. N. Y., 18 May,
1855, was graduated at Union college in 1806, and
in 1807 became private secretary to Gov. Daniel
D. Tompkins. He
was admitted to the
bar at Canandaigua
in 1809, became master
in chancery in
1811, judge-advocate-general
in the army
on the northern frontier
in 1813, postmaster
of Canandaigua in
1814, and assistant
attorney-general for
western New York in
1815. In that year
he was also made
district attorney. He
was then elected to
congress as a
Democrat, serving from 1
Dec., 1817, till 3
March, 1819, and during his term was one of a
committee to examine the affairs of the U. S.
bank, and drew up its report. Fifteen years afterward,
when Gen. Andrew Jackson was using this
report against the bank, Mr. Spencer was found
among its friends. In 1820-'1 he was a member
of the state house of representatives, serving in
the first year as speaker, and in 1824-'8 he was a
member of the state senate, being a leader of the
Clinton faction. In 1827 he was appointed by
Gov. De Witt Clinton one of the board to revise
the statutes of New York, and took an important
part in that task. Joining the anti-Masonic
party, he was appointed special attorney-general to
prosecute those that were connected with the
abduction of William Morgan, but resigned in May,
1830, having involved himself in a controversy
with Gov. Enos T. Throop. In 1832 he was
elected to the legislature, and in 1839-'40 he was
secretary of state and superintendent of common
schools. He was appointed U. S. secretary of war
on 12 Oct., 1841, and on 3 March, 1843, was
transferred to the treasury department, but, opposing
the annexation of Texas, resigned on 2 May, 1844,
and resumed the practice of law. He served on
many state commissions and aided in the organization
of the State asylum for idiots. In 1840 he
was made a regent of Union college, which gave
him the degree of LL. D. in 1849. He published
an edition of Henry Reeve's translation of De
Tocqueville's “Democracy in America,” contributing
a preface and notes (2 vols., New York, 1838),
and also, with John Duer and Benjamin F. Butler,
a “Revision of the Statutes of New York” (3 vols.,
Albany, 1846). See “Review of John C. Spencer's
Legal and Political Career,” by Lucien B. Proctor
(New York, 1886).—Another son of Ambrose, William
Ambrose, naval officer, b. in New York in
1793; d. in New York city, 3 March, 1854, was
appointed midshipman in the U. S. navy, 15 Nov.,
1809, became lieutenant on 9 Dec., 1814,
commander on 3 March, 1813, and captain, 22 Jan.,
1841, and resigned on 9 Dec., 1843. He was acting
lieutenant in Com. Thomas Macdonough's
victory on Lake Champlain, 11 Sept., 1814.—Another
son of Ambrose, Theodore, clergyman, b. in
Hudson, N. Y., 24 April, 1800: d. in Utica, N. Y., 14
June, 1870. He entered the U. S. military academy,
but left it to study law, and, beginning to practise
in Auburn, N. Y., became district attorney for
Cayuga county. Afterward he studied theology, was
pastor of the 2d Congregational church in Rome,
and preached also in Utica. Retiring from active
work, owing to impaired health, he was made
secretary of the American home missionary society
for central and northern New York. He was the
author of “Conversion, its Theory and Process
Practically Delineated” (New York, 1854), and
other theological works.—Thomas's descendant in
the sixth generation, Ichabod Smith, clergyman,
b. in Rupert, Vt., 23 Feb., 1798; d. in Brooklyn,
N. Y., 23 Nov., 1854, was graduated at Union in
1822 and was principal of the grammar-school in
Schenectady, N. Y., until 1825, and of an academy
in Canandaigua, N. Y., until 1828. After studying
theology he was licensed by the presbytery of
Geneva in 1826, and on 11 Sept., 1828, was appointed
colleague pastor, with the Rev. Solomon Williams,
of the Congregational church in Northampton,
Mass., remaining until 1832. He then became pastor
of the 2d Presbyterian church of Brooklyn,
N. Y., which charge he held until his death. From
1836 till 1840 he was professor extraordinary of
biblical history in Union theological seminary,
New York, of which institution he was a founder.
In 1830 he was offered the presidency of the
University of Alabama and in 1832 that of Hamilton.
The latter college gave him the degree of D.D. in
1841. His best-known publication is his “Pastor's
Sketches,” which passed through many editions,
and was republished in England and France (2
series, New York, 1850-'3). After his death
appeared “Sermons,” with a memoir by the Rev.
James M. Sherwood (2 vols., 1855); “Sacramental
Discourses” (1861); and “Evidences of Divine
Revelation” (1865).—Jared's descendant in the
fourth generation, Joseph, soldier, b. in East
Haddam, Conn., in 1714; d. there, 13 Jan., 1789, joined
the northern army in 1758, and was major in the
3d Connecticut regiment under Col. Nathaniel
Whiting. He served as lieutenant-colonel in the
two following campaigns, rose to the rank of colonel,
and was one of the eight brigadier-generals appointed by congress at the instance of Gen.
Washington on 22 June, 1775. Taking offence when
Gen. Israel Putnam, a younger officer, was appointed
over him, he was about to retire from the army,
but, deciding to remain, served near Boston until
its evacuation, and then marched with his division
to the defence of New York. On 9 Aug., 1776, he
was appointed major-general, and opposed the
evacuation of New York. Gen. Spencer was
ordered in 1778 to take command at Rhode Island,
which was surrounded by Admiral Sir Peter
Parker. The British army having taken possession of
Newport, Gen. Spencer assembled a large force at
Providence, but the enterprise proved a failure,
and, after remaining in the vicinity for several
weeks, the militia was dismissed. Gen. Spencer
was censured for the failure of this expedition, but
a court of inquiry attributed the result to forces
beyond his control. He resigned on 14 June, 1778,
in consequence of an order of congress to inquire
into the reasons for his failure, and afterward
appeared but little in public life.—His brother,
Elihu, clergyman, b. in East Haddam, Conn., 12
Feb., 1721; d. in Trenton, N. J., 27 Dec., 1784, was
graduated at Yale in 1746, and, with a view to
becoming a missionary to the Indians of the Six
Nations, studied their dialect and prepared himself
for this office under the Rev. John Brainerd and
Jonathan Edwards, accompanying the latter to the
Indian conference in Albany in 1748. He was
ordained on 14 Sept., 1748, and, after laboring in
western New York, was appointed pastor of the
Presbyterian church in Elizabeth, N. J., in 1750,
holding this charge until 1756, when he was called
to the Presbyterian church of Jamaica, L. I.
About 1758 he was appointed by Gov. James De
Lancey chaplain of the New York troops that
were forming for service in the French war, after
which he labored in the contiguous congregations
of Shrewsbury, Middletown Point, Shark River,
and Amboy, N. J. In 1764 he was sent by the
synod of New York and Philadelphia with the
Rev. Alexander McWhorter on a mission to organize
the irregular congregations of North Carolina,
which district they again visited in 1775 at the
request of the Provincial congress of that colony. As
he had contributed to the cause of independence,
the Tories were embittered toward him, and on
one occasion burned books and papers of his that
had fallen into their possession. From 1769 until
his death he was pastor of the Presbyterian church
in Trenton, N. J. He was frequently called
“Readymoney Spencer,” from his facility in
extempore address. From 1752 until his death he
was a guardian of Princeton college. The University
of Pennsylvania gave him the degree of D. D.
in 1782. In 1759 he wrote a letter to the Rev.
Ezra Stiles, afterward president of Yale, on “The
State of the Dissenting Interest in the Middle
Colonies of America,” which was published and
attracted attention.