Spalding family.

A progenitor of the Spalding family, Edward Spalding, had already immigrated to America by 1640. His descendant, Lyman Spalding, was born on June 5, 1775, in New Hampshire. Lyman Spalding received an M.B. degree from Harvard, later receiving an honorary M.D. He also received the first honorary degree from Dartmouth Medical School, where he lectured. Lyman Spalding's son, Lyman Dyer Spalding, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 2, 1810. He was a merchant in Portsmouth and in 1836, master of the ship, Marion. Lyman Dyer had five children with his wife, Susan Parker. Their first child, Lyman Greenleaf, was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and was killed by the premature explosion of a torpedo in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 29, 1881.