Barbara and Graham's Family Tree
Spencer Page
Overview of the Spencer Ancestors
This part of the web site is about grandfather William Spencer and his ancestors.
His part of the family tree has been split into two diagrams, one is his paternal branch (the Spencers) and one is his maternal branch (the Johnsons).
The Spencer Branch | The Johnson Branch
The Spencers originally came from Northamptonshire. So far it has not been possible to establish any link with "THE Spencers" of Althorp Northamptonshire.
Several of the Spencers were stonemasons, with more recent generations being builders. The first of the Spencers to be recorded as a stonemason was Matthew Spencer who lived in Woodnewton in Northamptonshire from 1792 to 1859.
More information about Matthew Spencer
Matthew's grandson, William Spencer, moved to Armley in the mid 1870's. His son Wilfred married Henrietta Johnson and their son was grandfather William.
The Johnsons came from Coventry and had moved via Cheshire and Lancashire before arriving in Leeds in the mid 1870's. Granddad Spencer's mother Henrietta Johnson was born in Leeds. Unfortunately her father William committed suicide when she was 2 and the 1881 census shows her, her mother, two brothers and a sister as living in the Holbeck workhouse. The 1891 census shows her aged 13, as a pupil of the Leeds Moral and Industrial Training School, which was a school for paupers.
William Johnson's suicide was reported in the
Leeds Mercury
This is William's father Wilfred Spencer.
He remarried after Henrietta's death. This is him with his second wife.
Does anyone know her name?
William Spencer
Additional Information
Information about Woodnewton
Leeds
Workhouses
Includes info on training schools.