12 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



Government that there was a lack of enthusiasm for their 

 cause among the Scotch Presbyterian settlers in the 

 Carolinas. Elihu Spencer, whose eloquence had won him 

 the name of "the silver tongued," was sent to rouse them 

 to greater activity. He met with such success in this 

 errand as to incur considerable animosity from the British 

 authorities, and it is reported that a price was set upon 

 his head. There is a family tradition that when Trenton 

 fell into the hands of the British his house was ransacked 

 for papers, and, during the course of the search, soldiers 

 exploring the cellar found a large quantity of china 

 stacked up. They wantonly fired their muskets into the 

 china, as Miss Lucy Baird observes in her notes, to the 

 great destruction of many pieces which, judging from 

 those which escaped, would now fill the hearts of modern 

 collectors with delight. 



When Aaron Burr was sent to college his father con- 

 signed him to the care and general superintendence of 

 his friend Elihu Spencer, in whose family the youth was 

 intimate at that period. Another family anecdote is 

 that Burr, being in Philadelphia after the duel with 

 Hamilton, called upon Mrs. MacFunn Biddle, whom he 

 had known at Trenton as Lydia Spencer. The Biddies 

 were intimate friends of Hamilton and possessed a fine 

 marble bust of him which still remains in the family. 

 After Burr had been there a short time he looked up and 

 recognized the bust, turned very pale, took his leave in a 

 few moments, and never called again. 



The Reverend Elihu Spencer married in 1750 Joanna 

 Eatton, and the daughter Lydia above referred to was 

 born at Trenton in 1766. By her marriage to William 

 MacFunn Biddle and of her daughter Lydia to Samuel 

 Baird, the lines of descent became united. As a young 



