William Wallace Spence

William Wallace Spence (October 18, 1815 – November 3, 1915) was a Baltimore financier. He was a founding partner of Spence & Reid, which manufactured clipper ships, established an import/export firm at Pratt Street’s Old Bowley’s Wharf, and founded The Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company.

Early life William Wallace Spence was born on October 18, 1815, in Edinburgh to Sarah (née Dickson) and John Spence. His father was a physician. He attended high school in Edinburgh and immigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen with only one-hundred dollars in his pocket.

Career Spence first lived in New York City for five years and worked as a clerk there. Spence then moved to Norfolk, Virginia, and was employed as a shipping clerk at Robert Soutter & Sons. He later became a member. He came to Baltimore to enter into a business partnership with Andrew Reid, forming the corporation Spence & Reid, which manufactured clipper ships.

Civic activity Spence was a pillar in the Baltimore community. He was the president of the Municipal Art Society, active in the formation of the First Presbyterian Church, He is best known for erecting a thirteen-foot, iron statue of William Wallace, the Scottish martyr, in 1892 in Druid Hill Park and donating a copy of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Christus Consolator to Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1896. Spence also served as president of the Presbyterian Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital.