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 Biddles 
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 
