Mary Spingler

Note: There were other branches of the Derbyshire Bonsall line that came to America. See: Richard Bonsall . Futher work could consult https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Bonsall,_Derbyshire_Genealogy

Second wife of Henry Spingler and the only one to bear him offspring that lived to adulthood.

She and Henry married within two years of the death of his first wife, Jane. They married at the John Street Church (Methodist Episcopal) on the 19th day of April, 1791. This record is found in Vol. 233, p. 11 of the Records of the Methodist Historical Society of the City of New York.

Mary came to the US under these circumstances:

• Her mother Sarah had just died. Mary was then in her later thirties.

• "Received in London April 30th 1787 of Mr. Sheron Thirty Guinea in full for the passage of Miss Bonsall in Ship Providence for N York £ 31.10

Sam'l Pearce, Captain"

It was perhaps she who was in position to help the most with the initial transition of the 22 acres of Spingler farm land to a commercial rental empire for she lived through the decades of the early 19th century expansion of NYC. Her husband died well before she did. Her older brother John who was already a successful lumber merchant in New York City (Bonsall's Dock) would also have been a resource for her when it came to business decisions.

Her husband Henry died well before many of the dramatic changes surrounding the farm came to be. Mary became a widow in 1814 and lived for another 28 years. She had Henry's portrait painted posthumously.

Mary had married Henry some years before her nephew, Deacon Robert Bonsall, was assigned to the John Street Methodist Church (1799) This church was near the Fly Market where Henry had had a stall for many years.

The Methodist faith was prominent in the marriages of different Bonsal, van Beuren & Fonerden (Von Erden) family members in both Maryland and New York City. However, the Methodist Von Erdens of Baltimore remained staunch Patriots while the line of van Beurens which her grandchild married into were largely Loyalist.

• nephew Deacon Robert married Martha Fonerden in 1794 in Baltimore (Mary Bonsall married Henry Spingler 3 years earlier).

• Henry's and Mary's daughter Eliza Murray Spingler was born in 1792 and went on to marry another member of the Fnerden family. NOTE: all these wedding seem to be linked to the family's Methodist faith.

• Eliza was the sole heir of the Spingler/Bonsall estate, her mother Mary having died 4/17/1842.

• Mary's will was dated 12/11/1840

• * https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/235671053/mary-spingler
• Mary's great great grandson, Henry Spingler van Beuren and her third great niece Mary Hanlon would figure in the dam disaster at Walnut Grove, Arizona Territory. (1890) < see those profiles

Flash forward to a map of 1852 Bonsall's Wharf is now covered up by the Washington Market and the lumber yards have moved north.