Joseph Spencer was an American judge of probate, congressman and military, who received Major General (1776).
Background
Joseph was born on October 3, 1714 in East Haddam, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Isaac and Mary (Selden) Spencer, the brother of Elihu Spencer, and the great-grandson of Jared (Gerard) Spencer, an English emigrant who settled in Haddam, Connecticut, about 1662.
Career
Throughout his adult life he enjoyed official position in the community, was probate judge from 1753 to his death, deputy to the Assembly in most of the sessions between 1750 and 1766, and assistant after 1766. He was an officer in the last two of the colonial wars. In 1747 he was commissioned lieutenant of the company raised in Millington Parish, became a major in 1757, lieutenant-colonel in 1759, and colonel in 1766.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he was chosen brigadier-general of the Connecticut forces and was stationed at Roxbury early in May 1775. Notwithstanding his experience, his military rank in the colony, and his civil position he found himself superseded, when on June 20, 1775, the Continental Congress raised Israel Putnam to the rank of major-general, while two days later it commissioned Spencer, his superior officer in the Connecticut line, as brigadier-general.
On August 9, 1776, he became major-general. In September he was one of the three officers who advised Washington to attempt to hold New York City. Ordered to New England in December, he took up headquarters at Providence and planned a movement against the enemy. When he was criticized for his failure in the autumn of 1777 he asked for and received a court of inquiry, which exonerated him. However, he resigned on January 13, 1778.
He died in East Haddam.
Achievements
Connections
He was married to his first wife Martha Brainerd on August 2, 1738. He was survived by his second wife, Hannah (Brown) Southmayd Spencer, to whom he was married in 1756.
Of his thirteen children, Martha became the mother of Spencer Houghton Cone and Joseph the father of Elizabeth Spencer who married Lewis Cass.