According to Audrey Mae’s artistic cemetery map diagram and Audrey Mae’s gravestone numbering system, Martha A Spencer’s gravestone is Gravestone Number Thirty-Three. Using her Smith-Corona typewriter in the 1980s, Audrey Mae typed the following mini-biography of Martha, a eighth-generation Spencer in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
Martha born in 1837 is the child of John Anthony (gravestone No. 32) and Jamima Maxim (gravestone No. 31) Spencer. John Anthony is the son of Captain John (gravestone No. 4) and Phebe (née Vaughn) Spencer. Captain John is the first son of Huldah (gravestone No. 1) and Patriot John (No. 2) Spencer.
Martha only lived a few months.
Bruce MacGunnigle – 49
Three of John Anthony and Jamina Maxim’s daughters are buried here. Two died in infancy and one as a toddler. Audrey Mae did not record the causes of their deaths but noted that their Spencer great-grandparents died at age 70 and age 89, their grandparents died at age 54 and 74 and their parents died at age 85 and 78. Apparently at that time in history, if a child did not die in infancy or childhood, they had a good chance of living to old age.
“Spencer, Johnson, Goff and Vaughn descendants, if you have any additional information on the infant Martha Spencer, please add a comment to this web site and the web site editor will add this to the site. Thanks.”