4 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



is not recorded in the documents accessible to me, but in 

 November, 1775, his wife, Mary, was a widow with ten 

 children, of whom seven were sons. The eldest, James, 

 was born in 1748. Samuel Baird, the sixth in order of 

 the children, was a quartermaster in the Revolutionary 

 army, later settled in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 

 and about 1782 married Rebecca Potts, born in 1753. 



After the death of Thomas Baird his widow removed 

 first to Kentucky with her children, where some of their 

 descendants are supposed to live at the present time, and 

 afterward to Vincennes, Indiana. Bardstown, Kentucky, 

 is supposed to have been named after some of the early 

 members of this branch, the name Baird, as heretofore 

 noted, having many variants. 



Samuel Baird (i) appears to have been the only male 

 member of the family who remained in Pennsylvania, 

 which may perhaps be accounted for by his army service. 

 He had eleven children, most of whom died unmarried. 

 His wife's uncle, John Potts, was a Tory, and with others 

 of his way of thinking removed to Nova Scotia after the 

 success of the Revolution, leaving a fine house and grounds 

 called Stowe, near Pottsgrove (now Pottstown). This 

 was confiscated and later sold to Jonathan Potts for 

 20,000. It was afterward purchased by Samuel Baird, 

 who long resided there, but after his death it passed into 

 other hands. The sixth child of Samuel and Rebecca 

 Potts Baird was named for his father, and was born at 

 Norristown, in 1786. The father died June 26, 1820; his 

 widow survived him, reaching the ripe age of seventy- 

 seven. Samuel Baird, senior, was a land surveyor, and in 

 the settlement and division of new lands must have 

 prospered, for he lived generously. His son Samuel (2) 

 was educated well, brought up to the law, and by the 



