O.M. Spencer's Ancestry

From The Indian Captivity Of O.M. Spencer:

"My father [Oliver Marlborough Spencer, Sr.] had descended from one of the first families who left England on account of the persecutions for religious opinions, in the reign of the second Charles, to seek in the unbroken wilds of New England an asylum from oppression...". 

My mutual ancestor (Gerrard Spencer) with Oliver Marlborough Spencer (via Wikitree):

Cathy and Oliver are fourth cousins 6 times removed
Cathy (Powers) Palm and Oliver Spencer are both descendants of Gerard Spencer.

1. Cathy is the daughter of Richard Newman Powers [confident]
2. Richard is the son of Ralph Newman Powers [confident]
3. Ralph is the son of Addie (More) Powers [confident]
4. Addie is the daughter of Cynthia (Richmond) More [confident]
5. Cynthia is the daughter of Laura (Backus) Richmond [confident]
6. Laura is the daughter of John Backus [confident]
7. John is the son of John Backus [confident]
8. John is the son of John Backus [unknown confidence]
9. John is the son of Timothy Backus I [unknown confidence]
10. Timothy is the son of Sarah (Spencer) Backus [unknown confidence]
11. Sarah is the daughter of Gerard Spencer [unknown confidence]
This makes Gerard the ninth great grandfather of Cathy.

1. Oliver is the son of Oliver Marlborough Spencer [unknown confidence]
2. Oliver is the son of Samuel Spencer [unknown confidence]
3. Samuel is the son of Isaac Spencer [unknown confidence]
4. Isaac is the son of Samuel Gerrard Spencer [unknown confidence]
5. Samuel is the son of Gerard Spencer [unknown confidence]
This makes Gerard the third great grandfather of Oliver.

The Revolutionary War Brought Military Success And Financial Ruin

The story of Colonel Oliver Spencer embedded in the story of his son Oliver's capture by Native Americans.

The most prominent settler of Columbia [Hamilton County, Ohio] was Colonel Oliver Spencer, father of our narrator. Colonel Spencer was not only of the best English descent, but, a point of greater importance, he was entirely worthy of his ancestry. A native of Connecticut, he removed at an early age to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he married the daughter of Robert Ogden. 

Colonel Spencer engaged in the tannery business with his father-in-law and was rapidly acquiring wealth when the Revolution came to alter his whole future course of life.  We need note in this connection only that while he served with credit throughout the war, rising to the rank of colonel in the continental service, he found himself at its close a ruined man, his capital dissipated, and his home and tannery (the latter one of the largest in America) gutted. Under such circumstances he turned a ready ear to the project for colonization on the Ohio, with the prospect it held out to men of energy of beginning life anew under more favor able circumstances than the settled East could offer. [Source]

Oliver Spencer is not an ancestor of mine, but is a distant cousin. He was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, into the Spencer family who were among the first settlers there in 1662.  My ancestor was Gerard Spencer (1).

Oliver Spencer's ancestry:
 Samuel(4) Spencer (Isaac(3), Samuel(2), Gerard(1), born at East Haddam, 10 Jul 1708, died there 4 Sep 1757...child:
iii. Oliver, b. 6 Oct 1736; d. 22 Jan 1811

English Queens - Isabel The Fair

Isabel The Fair by Margaret Campbell Barnes is a novel about Isabel, daughter of Philip The Fair, King of France, and wife of Edward II, King of England. Isabel's first nemesis was Piers Galveston; her second was Hugh despencer.

A blog dedicated to Edward II of England and a specific entry about Hugh despencer.
Descendants of Hugh le Despencer are listed here. A Despencer blog can be found here. Is Hugh Despencer an ancestor of Gerrard Spencer and therefore an ancestor of mine? It appears as though Gerrard Spencer was descended from Geoffrey (did this Geoffrey marry Emma?) and Geoffrey's brother Hugh was the father of Hugh who was a major character in the novel. Does this support or debunk the connection? Need more time to go through it thoroughly.

21. Gerrard Spencer was the son of Michael Spencer, and was baptized at
Stratford, England, in 1576. He was the grandson of John Spencer who
married Ann Gerrard, a daughter of Sir William Gerrard, Lord Mayor of
London, 1555. It was from this grandparent that he received his name,
which was provincialized to Jared in New England.

Henry Spencer and Isabelle Lincoln, my ancestors (via Gerrard Spencer) and also ancestors of Prince William of England through his mother Diana, per this site.  Other descendants 

include Winston Churchill, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and 

George Bush.