Herbert Worth Jackson

Antecedents of the Jackson family in Chatham, Randolph, Anson and Guilford counties, North Carolina were there before the American Revolution.  Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, practiced law about two years at Johnsonville, Randolph County, beginning December 11, 1788.  John Jackson was a member from that county in 1782 and 1783, and Isaac Jackson in 1796 and 1797.  They allied by marriage with old New England families, and they number among their ancestors such names as John Carver, governor of the Plymouth colony; John Howland and John Tilley, signers of the Mayflower Compact; Stephen Batchelder, and Thomas Macy, all emigrant ancestors, who settled in New England.  Through the Spencers, Mr. Jackson is descended from one of the oldest and strongest New England families.  The Spencers long resided in Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England, near the seat of the noble house of Spencer, and the name is supposed to have been derived from the fact that its members were stewards or dispensers from the time of William the Conqueror.

Michael Spencer and his wife, Elizabeth, residing in Stotfold, had four sons and two daughters, namely; Richard, Thomas, John, Gerard, Catherine and a daughter whose name has not been preserved, though she has descendants.  Her daughter Elizabeth married a Terry, a vintner.  Gerard (or Jarrard), fourth son of Michael and Elizabeth Spencer, was baptized May 20, 1576, at Stotfold, and died before March 17, 1645.  He and his wife, Alice, were parents of four sons and a daughter—William, Gerard, Michael, Thomas and Elizabeth.  All of the sons except Michael came to this country about 1631.  Gerard (or Jarrard) Spencer (2), second son of Gerard (or Jarrard) (1) Spencer, accompanied his brothers to this country and was at Newtown, then a part of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1632, later at Lynn, and was one of the original settlers of Haddam, Connecticut, where he was ensign and lieutenant of the militia, and died in 1685.  He had wife Hannah and eleven children.  The third son, Samuel Spencer resided in Millington Society, East Haddam, where he died August 7, 1705.  He married (first) Hannah, widow of Peter Blatchford, and daughter of Isaac Willey, who was the mother of his four children.  The second son, Isaac, born January 9, 1678, resided in East Haddam, where he married, October 2, 1707, Mary Selden, and had eleven children.  The eldest of these, Samuel Spencer, born September 16, 1708, was presumably the father of Judge Samuel Spencer of Anson County, North Carolina.  It is possible that the latter may have been the son of Samuel’s cousin John, son of Samuel Spencer, who was born January 4, 1709.  It is certain that he was the son of one of these.

Judge Samuel Spencer was born in 1738 in East Haddam, and removed to North Carolina in the year 1760, settling in Anson County, where he was a conspicuous and useful citizen until his death in 1794.  He was graduated from Princeton College, New Jersey, in the class of 1759 and in 1784 received from that institution the degree of LL.D.  He was a member of the provincial Congress held at Hillsboro in August, 1775, and was appointed a Colonel on the provincial council of safety in that year, which was the real executive of the state during the period of transition from a colony and the adoption of a state constitution in 1776, when Richard Caswell became governor.  He was appointed Colonel of the North Carolina Militia in September, 1775; was a member of the state provincial Congress at Halifax in April 1776 and of the provincial Congress in 1777.  He was judge of the superior courts of North Carolina from November 15, 1777, until his death, one of the three first elected under the constitution.  He married Sibyl Pegues, of Anson County, and both are buried on Smith’s Creek, Anson County, North Carolina.

Isaac Jackson, a patriot of the revolution, married Mary Spencer, daughter of Judge Samuel Spencer, and resided in Wadesboro, Anson County, North Carolina.  Their son, Samuel Spencer Jackson, was born March 10, 1787, in Wadesboro, and died in Pittsboro, Chatham County, North Carolina, December 4, 1856.  He married Elizabeth Kinchen Alston, daughter of Joseph John Alston, of Chatham country, North Carolina, and a descendant of John Alston, of Bedfordshire, England, who settled in North Carolina during the colonial period, and had issue several children and many descendants in North Carolina and the south.

Samuel Spencer (2) Jackson, son of Samuel Spencer (1) and Elizabeth Kinchen (Alston) Jackson, was born September 6, 1832, at Pittsboro.  He was a lawyer and a clerk and master of equity prior to the Civil War in Randolph County, North Carolina and died in Asheboro, March 5, 1875.  He married, December 1856, Elvira Evelyn Worth daughter of Jonathan and Martitea (Daniel) Worth.  Martitea (Daniel) Worth was a daughter of John Daniel of Charlotte County, Virginia, and Lucy Murphy and niece of Judge Archibald De Bow Murphy, of Orange County, North Carolina.  Her father, Jonathan Worth, was the thirty-eighth governor of North Carolina.  He was born November 18, 1802, in Guildford County, North Carolina, the son of Dr. David Worth, a prominent physician of Guildford County, and he received a fair education in the “Old Field Schools” of that time.  At the age of eighteen he began teaching school and studied law, and began the practice of law at Asheboro, North Carolina about 1826.  He was elected to the North Carolina legislature in 1830, and re-elected to the same office.  In 1840 he was sent to the state senate, again elected in 1858 and re-elected in 1860-61, but declined to become a candidate on the secession ticket; however, after secession was accomplished he adhered to the de facto government, and in 1862-63 served in the state legislature.  Later he was elected state treasurer, and re-elected in 1864, and held that office until the state government was overthrown in 1865 by the Federal forces.  He was soon afterward elected governor of North Carolina, and held office until July 1, 1868, when the provisional state government was superseded by another under the direction of Congress.  On his removal by military duress he filed a protest that is famous in the history of North Carolina.  He died September 5, 1869 at Raleigh, North Carolina.

Herbert Worth Jackson, son of Samuel Spencer (2) and Elvira Evelyn (Worth) Jackson was born February 15, 1865, at Asheboro, Randolph County, North Carolina.  He received elementary instruction in the local schools of his native town; later attended Bingham Military School at Mebane, North Carolina, from 1879 to 1883 and from 1883 to 1886 studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from which he graduated as PhD in 1886.  He was treasurer of the Wetmore Shoe & Leather Company of Raleigh, North Carolina then assistant cashier of the Commercial & Farmer’s Bank and cashier of the Commercial National Bank of Raleigh.  In January 1910, he was made president of the Virginia Trust Company of Richmond, Virginia and moved his family to Richmond in February 1910, where they now reside.

He married Annie Hyman Phillips, daughter of Judge Frederick and Martha (Hyman) Phillips, October 22, 1890 at Raleigh, North Carolina.  She was born in 1866 at Tarboro, North Carolina; is the granddaughter of Dr. James Jones and Harriet (Burt) Philips, and the great-granddaughter of Hartwell Philips, who came from Mecklenburg County, Virginia, to Edgecombe County, North Carolina.  Issue of Herbert Worth and Annie H. (Phillips) Jackson: Evelyn Hyman, born July 12, 1892; Herbert Worth, September 28, 1897; Frederick Philips, November 3, 1899, died 1902; Samuel Spencer, January 23, 1902, at Raleigh.

Mr. Jackson was identified with various commercial and banking enterprises of North Carolina for twenty years.  He was director and treasurer of the News & Observer Company for fifteen years, and trustee of the University of North Carolina five years; the president of the North Carolina’s Banker’s Association; and its director and president of the Virginia Trust Company at Richmond, Virginia Trust Company at Richmond, Virginia.  He was president of the Raleigh Young men’s Christian Association, superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school of Raleigh, for about fifteen years, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church there.  He is a member and worthy master of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and likewise of the North Carolina Society, Sons of the Revolution, in virtue of his descent from Samuel Spencer, a revolutionary patriot, and judge of the courts of North Carolina under the Articles of Confederation; also by virtue of his descent from Colonel Archibald Murphy, of Caswell county, North Carolina.  He is eligible to Sons of Colonial Wars by virtue of descent from Captain John Gorham, of Massachusetts; also Colonel John Gorham and Ensign Jarrett Spencer, of Connecticut, 1650, and John Tilly, 1620.