Father: Thomas Cole Spencer (1774-1860), Virginia
Mother: Frances Pearce (1776-1817)

Matthew L. Spencer and Louise S. Neal married March 28, 1838, in Lunenberg County, Virginia.

Two children who survived into adulthood who are not in Find A Grave:
• Virginia Louisa Spencer, b. Aug. 31, 1850 in Virginia, married Lucas Polk Jones (1849 - 1892)
• (Rev.) Flournoy Poindexter Spencer, b. 2 Apr. 2, 1857 in Virginia, married Alice Eleanor Manes.
_______________________________________________________

The Weekly Panolian,
Batesville, Panola County, Miss.
Friday, Jan 20, 1888

Obituary

Died, December 30, 1887, at the residence of Mr. L. P. Jones, Mr. M. L. Spencer, in the 79th year of his age. An obituary is unnecessary, in a community where he lived for 28 years, for to know him was to know that if he had a fault, it was leaning too far to virtue's side.

He moved from Lunenburg Co., Va., in the fall of 1860, to Batesville, Miss. He was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church for 60 years, his Christian life being as modest and retiring as it was exemplary and beautiful.

For three months God laid his afflicting hand upon him, but he bore it with childlike faith and submission, often asking his children to pray, not that he might get well, or be spared to them, but that he might be better prepared, and ready when the summons came.

We could say much of his fine intelligence, his true refinement and honest integrity, but these things comfort not so much as the blessed assurance that he is not lost-but gone before. We do not think of him as we last saw him, bowed down with the infirmities of age, we do not think of him as lying in the cold dismal grave, we do not think of the length of time he has been absent from us; but we think of him as walking with the step of an "immortal athlete-forever young again;" we think of him as a jewel in the Savior's crown, we think of the length of time he has spent in Heaven, realizing the truth of that gospel he loved so well-"A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand."

Dear father thou art happy, freed from the suffering cares and anxiety of earth, thou art joining with perfect hearing in the "New Song," and seeing with perfect vision all the beauty God has prepared for them that love Him. Truly for thee to die-was gain.