William Spence

William Spence (sometimes shown as Spense) was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island. He was member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, 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 at Archer's Hope. He, his wife and his young daughter, Sara, or Sarah, avoided the Indian massacre of 1622, but Spence and his wife were reported "lost" at the census of February 16, 1624. Arrival at Jamestown Not William Spencer William Spence is sometimes erroneously conflated with William Spencer (burgess), another early Virginia colonist who also lived on Jamestown Island but did not arrive at Jamestown until 1611. William Spencer later became a member of the House of Burgesses for Mulberry Island in 1632–33, eight years after William Spence was lost and presumed dead.