William Spence (sometimes shown as Spense) was an earlyVirginia colonist on Jamestown Island. He was member of the first assembly of theVirginia House of Burgesses inJamestown, Virginia in 1619. Spence became an ensign in the local militia and is thus sometimes identified as Ensign William Spence or Ensign Spence. He was an early farmer on Jamestown Island, a "tobacco taster" and landowner atArcher's Hope. He, his wife and his young daughter, Sara, or Sarah, avoided theIndian massacre of 1622, but Spence and his wife were reported "lost" at the census of February 16, 1624.^[3]

William Spence is sometimes erroneously conflated withWilliam Spencer I, another early Virginia colonist who also lived on Jamestown Island but did not arrive at Jamestown until 1611.^[4] William Spencer I later became a member of the House of Burgesses forMulberry Island in 1632–33, eight years after William Spence was lost and presumed dead.^{[5][note 1]}

William Spence came to Virginia in theFirst Supply mission to Jamestown in 1608.^[3] He is sometimes shown in modern printed lists of passengers as both a "gentleman" and a "labourer," not only a double listing, but in seemingly inconsistent categories.^[6] On the other hand, in the names of those arriving at Jamestown in the First Supply voyage in CaptainJohn Smith'sThe General History, Book 3, Chapter 4, as reprinted in Haile at page 252, Spence is only listed as a "gentleman."^{[note 2]}

Martha McCartney supports John Smith's statement that Spence "reportedly" was the first farmer to work his own land on Jamestown Island.^[3] She also states that in 1618 Spence offered to employ workers of the late governor, SirThomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, after West had died at sea while returning to the colony from England in summer 1618.^[7] West's subordinate, Captain Edward Brewster, to whom Spence made the offer, was prevented from taking custody of his goods by Deputy GovernorSamuel Argall, who misappropriated West's laborers and artisans to work on his own projects.^[8]

Ensign William Spence, along with CaptainWilliam Powell), were members of the first general assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses for Jamestown in July–August 1619.^[3][9]

In 1619, as a "tobacco taster", Spence evaluated the quality of tobacco by sampling portions of the tobacco crop.^[3]

Because of his early arrival at Jamestown and continued residence there, Spence was considered an "Ancient planter", which was simply a descriptive term. Ancient planters were early Virginia colonists who arrived when the colony was managed by theVirginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions toGovernor Yeardley" issued by theLondon Company in 1618, these colonists received the first land grants in Virginia.^{[note 3]}

In January 1619, William Spence along with John Fowler received a patent for 300 acres in Archer's Hope, a few miles from Jamestown.^{[3][note 4]} Since Spence continued to live at Jamestown Island, McCartney surmises that he placed indentured servants on the property along with his partner, John Fowler, who lived there.^[3] Fowler and four others, not including Spence or his wife, were killed in theIndian massacre of 1622 at Spence's house at Archer's Hope.^[3][10] A list of Virginia land patents sent to England in 1625 included 300 acres in Archer's Hope in the name of William Spence.^[3]

Spence had been in England in early 1622 and he returned on theJames, which departed for Jamestown on July 21, 1622.^[3] The February 16, 1624 census of the Virginia colony's inhabitants listed William Spence, his wife and his young daughter Sara(h), but Spence and his wife were shown on the list as "lost."^[3] They were also shown on a 1624 list of persons who had died since February 1623.^[3][11]

Spence's daughter, Sara Spence, 4 years old, was entrusted to a 20-year old widow, Mrs. Susan Bush, as guardian, atElizabeth City, Virginia.^[3] On August 14, 1624, the General Court ordered John Johnson, who had property on Jamestown Island and at Archer's Hope, to put a roof on the house and repair the fence of Ensign William Spence, Johnson's recently deceased neighbor.^[12] After 3 months, the court also ordered Sara Spence's "guardians" to have her property at Archer's Hope surveyed.^[3] On May 16, 1625, Sara Spence's guardians, including the Reverend George Keith as well as Susan Bush, were ordered to appear before the General Court.^[13] In October 1625, having still not had the property surveyed, the guardians were told by the court that they would be fined if they did not have the land surveyed.^[3] Susan Bush placed the Spence property in the hands of a tenant, Thomas Farley, on November 21, 1625.^[13] Sara Spence died by April 3, 1627 when the court ordered the Reverend George Keith of Elizabeth City to inventory her estate.^[14] Susan Bush also may have died by this date since she was not included in the order pertaining to the Spence property.^[13]

Records of the exact date and manner of the deaths of William Spence and his wife have not been found.^{[note 5]}

• Grizzard, Frank E. and Dennis Boyd Smith.Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social and Cultural History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007.ISBN 978-1-85109-637-4.
• Haile, Edward Wright, ed.Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607–1617. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse, 1998.ISBN 978-0-9664712-0-5.
• Henry, William Wirt.The First Legislative Assembly in America. InAnnual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1893. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1894.OCLC 1150082. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
• Lists of the Livinge & the Dead in Virginia 1623 Transcribed from “Colonial Records of Virginia”, R.F. Walker, Superintendent Public Printing, Richmond, VA, 1874, Clemmitt & Jones, Printers, pp. 37–68. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
• Kolb, Avery E.Early Passengers to Virginia: When Did They Really Arrive?, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 88, No. 4, Oct. 1980.JSTOR 4248428
• McCartney, Martha W.Virginia immigrants and adventurers, 1607–1635: a biographical dictionary. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2007.ISBN 978-0-8063-1774-8.
• Nugent, Nell Marion.Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623–1800. Vol. 1. Richmond, Virginia: Press of the Dietz Co., 1934.
• Price, David A.Love & Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Start of a New Nation. New York: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2003.ISBN 978-1-4000-3172-6.
• Robinson, Gregory, and Robin R. Goodison. "Sarah versus Susan." The William and Mary Quarterly 16, No. 4, 1936. pp. 515–21.
• Stanard, William G. and Mary Newton Stanard.The Virginia Colonial Register. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons Publishers, 1902.OCLC 253261475, Retrieved July 15, 2011.
• Tyler, Lyon Gardiner inEncyclopedia of Virginia biography. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1915.OCLC 866770546. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
• United States National Park Service.The First Residents of Jamestowne. National Park Service Historic Jamestowne page. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
• Woolley, Benjamin.Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. Originally published asSavage Kingdom: Virginia and the Founding of English America in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.ISBN 978-0-06-009057-9

• House of Burgesses members
• Planters from colonial Virginia
• English emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
• People from Jamestown, Virginia
• People from Charles City County, Virginia
• 17th-century American planters

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