One of the first settlers was John Spencer, the reputed builder of the house. He came to this country in the _Mary and John_ and settled on the banks of the river Parker in 1635, his name showing on the first page of the proprietors' records, where it appears that he was the grantee of the houselot which was next the great river. He was a man of means and took an important part in the formation of the little settlement which was established by his influence. Searching through the records of the time, we find his name constantly mentioned in the list of proprietors, and the statement that he built a mill at the falls of Newbury, where he had a mill lot of fifty acres, and rose to such prominence that the following year he was chosen magistrate in Newbury in the General Court. In other ways, too, he was a prominent man, being very much interested in military affairs. In April, 1637, we find him captain of a battalion that had been sent out under Captain Stoughton against the Pequod Indians. His religious opinions, however, did not agree with those of the settlers, and he was discharged from his command and returned to England after having been disarmed and condemned, being one of three under sentence; the other two were Richard Dummer and Nicholas Eaton, but he was the only one who went to England, where he remained until his death, which took place about 1647. Considering the enormous amount of work that went into the building of this house, which was a very large one, it is evident that he could not have built it before he left for England, as it could not possibly have been completed before then. While the records are scanty on this point, we have reason to believe that even if he commenced it, his nephew, who succeeded to the property, must have finished it. The brick used in the making of the old porch, and the square tile we find in the floor, were both in all probability brought over from the motherland. History relates that previous to 1680 brickyards had been established in Salem, as well as in Medford, but the bricks found to-day that were made at that period show them to be of very inferior quality. They were made by order of the Superior Court and measured nine inches long, two and a half inches thick, and four and a half inches wide. In this house the bricks used were much smaller and were also very smoothly molded. This leads one to believe that they were imported English brick, perhaps brought over as ballast in some of the ships that came to this country with settlers. The walls, however, were composed of a great variety of stone, some of which was probably brought by boats and rafts down the Merrimac River. There were also many that doubtless came from a long distance, but these facts are difficult to determine because of the scanty information to be obtained.