The name Spinney is of English origin and means "One who came from a spinney (thicket of trees) in Cambridgeshire England.

From The Yarmouth Herald, Tuesday, September 30, 1930. Titled: New Englanders in Nova Scotia.

Western Nova Scotia received many of its early families from what is now known as the state of Maine. The towns of Kittery and Berwick Maine originally composed one town called Piscataqua. At the siege of Louisburg, Kittery furnished 460 men and Berwick 155 men commanded by Captain Busted. From Kittery, Dover and York Maine, and across the state line in Portsmouth and Somersworth New Hampshire, there came to Nova Scotia the families of Ayers, Banks, Chesley, Cousins, Cushing, Decker, Frost, Goodwin, Hobbs, Jones, Morrell, Ricker, Roberts, Royal, Scott, SPINNEY, Woodman, Young and other families.

Thomas Spinney, the ancestor of all the Spinney's on the American continent as far as known, was no doubt descended from the one of that name who came from Normandy to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The name according to English Heraldry was three times knighted. First as De Spiny, second as Spiny and third as Spinney.

Thomas Spinney our first ancestor in New England, is said to have been born near Manchester England in 1620, the son of Samuel Spinney and Elizabeth Knight. When a young man, Thomas went to Wapping Stairs, near London, and shipped to go "cod hauling" to the bay of Chaleur. From the fishing ground he was carried to the Piscataway, by a Captain Fernald, and settled at Kittery. He is said to have been the first schoolmaster of the place.

A tradition of the family is that about thirty years after Thomas settled at Spinney's Neck a man making an excursion in the woods called at his house for refreshment. In the course of conversation they found that they were of the same name and that they were brothers, it being James who was an infant when Thomas left home.

Thomas Spinney had a grant of 200 acres in 1659 which lay on both sides of the Great Cove, later called "Spinney's Cove" at the end of what is now called Eliot Neck. Here he built his house and there he lived for the rest of his life. Thomas signed submission to Massachusetts in November 1652. In a legal document dated 1669 he is called Thomas Spinney, weaver. He died in Kittery on August 31, 1701. His will is dated July 9, 1701, "aged and very weak"; bequeaths to sons Samuel, James, Thomas, John and daughters Hannah, Mary and grandchildren Mercy and Margery (daughters of John), and others.