Ambrose Spencer

Ambrose Spencer (December 13, 1765 – March 13, 1848) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life Ambrose Spencer was born on December 13, 1765, in Salisbury in the Connecticut Colony. He was the son of Philip Spencer and Mary (née Moore) Spencer. His brother was Philip Spencer.

John Canfield Spencer (1788–1855), who was U.S. Secretary of War and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President John Tyler. who married Catharine Vosburgh, daughter of Myndert T. Vosburgh. Laura Isabella Spencer (1803–1825), who married Robert Gilchrist,

After the death of Ambrose's first wife in 1807, in 1808 he married Mary Clinton (1773–1808), the daughter of James Clinton and sister of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, who had previously been married to Robert Burrage Norton.

In 1848, he died in Lyons and was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.

Legacy

The University of Pennsylvania awarded him the degree of LL.D. in 1819, and Harvard the same in 1821. The town of Spencer in New York is named after him.

Descendants His grandson, Philip Spencer (1823–1842), was executed for mutiny in 1842. He was the grandfather of Lorrilard Spencer (1827–1888), great-grandfather of Lorrilard Spencer (1860–1912), who was married to Caroline Berryman Spencer, and 2x great-grandfather of Lorillard Spencer (1883–1939), who was president of Atlantic Aircraft and was married to Katherine Emmons Force (1891–1956), both of whom were prominent in Newport, Rhode Island, society.