Ye Old Pepper Companie and Mary Spencer, the “Gibraltar Lady”
122 Derby Street

One of the most enduring remnants of Salem’s great East India trade era is the “Gibraltar,” a candy made famous throughout the world by the Spencers of Salem and currently manufactured at this Derby Street location. Salem lore has it that “Mrs. Spencer” and her son Thomas sailed from England sometime around 1806 and supposedly lost everything they owned in a shipwreck, eventually finding their way to Salem. A kindly citizen was said to have donated a barrel of sugar to the Spencers who began making the tasty, paper-wrapped, lemon confection in a house at 56 Buffum Street in North Salem. Mary Spencer at first sold the candies on the stoop of the First Church in Town House Square, but was soon able to acquire a cart (now owned by the Peabody Essex Museum, see S45) and a shaggy grey pony she used as she made her sales calls. Eventually “Gibraltars,” originally called “Gibraltar Rocks” because of their hardness, found their way to the farthest corners of the globe on Salem vessels. No Salem ship, it has been said, would dare leave port without a supply.⁵

Notes
5. Jim McAllister, From Naumkeag to Witch City (Beverly, Mass., 2000), 57-58.