| 8. | William Sparks, Jr was born about 1674 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland (son of William* Sparks, Sr (immigrant) and Mrs. Mary* (..) Sparks, (immigrant)); died after 1734 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland. Notes:
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William Sparks, Jr. is the 6th Great-grandfather of James Joseph Sparks.
THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, MARCH 1971, Whole No. 73:
"SPARKS FAMILIES IN KENT, TALBOT AND QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTIES, MARYLAND."
In an article on William Sparks Jr.'s uncle John Sparks (517) at page1376, it mentions William Jr. In John's will he left "Buck Hill" to histwo sons John and George who were still in England and, if they didn'tcome to America, the property was to go to his nephew William Sparks,Jr. See notes of John Sparks.
The article on William Sparks Jr.'s father William (204) begins onpage 1384 where we find the following excerpt:
"The first official record of a son of William Sparks was recorded inOctober 1695 when he and his son, William Sparks, Jr. were witnesses tothe will of John Ellet in Talbot County. (Maryland Calendar of Wills,Vol. 2, p. 109). From this we may infer that William Sparks, Jr. was theoldest son of William Sparks and was probably born twenty-one or moreyears earlier, or at least by 1674. If this inference is correct, we mayspeculate that William and Mary had been married about 1670-73.
"...On December 2, 1696, both William Sparks and his son WilliamSparks Jr., signed an interesting document addressed to the King ofEngland, William III. In the previous February there had been anassassination plot to restore King James II to the throne. The plot wasbetrayed, most of the conspirators were arrested, and eight of them wereput to death. Stating that news had "here Arriv'd of the horribleintended Conspiracy against his Royal person," the justices of theprovince, along with the civil officers and military officers of eachcounty, signed an "address" of congratulations to their "DreadSoveraign." The signers professed their loyalty to King William andpromised to "Stand by & Assist Each other to the Utmost of our power inthe Support and Defense of yor Mats Governmt against the late King Jamesand all his Adherents..." William Sparks 's name appears among the 29"Civill Officers & Magistrates" of Kent County who signed this address,and the names of both William Sparks and his son William Sparks, Jr.,were included among the 62 "Military Officers of Kent County." (A numberof other individuals were listed among both the civil and militaryofficers including John Hunter and John Hamer, thus we can be quite surethat the William Sparks in both lists was t he same person.) Why WilliamSparks and his son were listed among the officials of Kent County ratherthan Talbot County, we cannot be sure. Talbot County had been cut offfrom Kent County in 1662, although Kent Island remained part of KentCounty until 1695."
At page 1389 we find:
"William Sparks, Jr., born about 1674. He married (first) MargaretHamilton, daughter of Josiah Hamilton; she died prior to 1729 and hemarried (second) Ann ---, who died January 15, 1730/31. We have found norecord of the death of William Sparks, Jr., nor have we been able toidentify any of his children, except a daughter Sarah ."
(For a full transcript of this article see notes under William I.)
In the SPARKS QUARTERLY, December 1989, Whole No. 148, pages 3484-3500is an article on William Sample Sparks (201), a son of William Sparks,Jr. It contains the following references to William Jr.:
Pg. 3485: "Paul E. Sparks and this writer are now convinced that wehave identified the parentage of William Sample Sparks, as well as hissiblings and three of his children. We have to admit, however, that ourproof of these relationships is based on what in the law is called "apreponderance of evidence" rather than upon a primary source documentcontaining this information. In part, our conclusions have
been reached through a process of elimination based on years of study ofall members of the Queen Annes County Sparks family. Much of ourdifficulty in this research results from the repeated use of the forename "William" by members of this branch of the family. Not only was thegrandfather of William Sample Sparks named William (we have his 1709 willthat was probated in Queen Annes County that same year), but this firstWilliam Sparks named his oldest son William, and in turn not only didthat son (William Sparks Jr.) name a son William, but each of the otherthree sons of this first William Sparks (who died in 1709) also named ason William, apparently to honor their father. Fortunately, William, sonof William, Jr., was either given a middle name at his birth or, what ismore probable, addopted the middle name"Sample." This helps greatly todistinguish him in the records of the time from his father and from histhree first cousins named William Sparks. Unfortunately, there wereoccasions when "Sample" was omitted from his name when a clerk recordedit in an official record.
"Until about a decade ago, we thought that the William Sparks who diedin Surry County, North Carolina, in 1802 was William Sample Sparks . Wegradually came to realize, however, that this William Sparks who diedin1802 was actually a son" (the 4th g-grandfather of James J. Sparks) "of William Sample Sparks, who had died some 35 years earlier...."
Page 3486: "William Sparks (died 1709), the first American ancestor ofthis branch of the Sparks family, came to the colony of Maryland in orabout 1663. During the next 45 years, he accumulated a good deal ofproperty which he passed on to his wife, Mary, and to his children i nhis will. As noted earlier, one of his sons was named William, and whilethe elder William Sparks was living, this son was called "William Sparks, Jr." in official records. We believe that William Sparks, Jr., was theeldest
son of William Sparks and that he was born about 1674. He was marriedtwice, his first wife being Margaret Hamilton, daughter of JosiahHamilton, to whom he had been married no later than March 1696 and whowas the mother of William Sample Sparks. (Margaret Hamilton wasidentified as the wife of William Sparks and the daughter of JosiahHamilton in a New Castle County, Deleware, deed dated March 31, 1696, andrecorded in Deed Book B-1, pp. 101-02; Josiah Hamilton had died by thisdate and property in New Castle that had been inherited by Margaret wassold in this deed.)
"Sometime prior to 1729, Margaret (Hamilton) Sparks died, and WilliamSparks, Jr., then married Anne---, who died on December 16, 1730. AnneSparks's death was recorded in St. Luke's Parish Register in Queen AnnesCounty, Maryland. William Sparks, Jr. died about 1735, we believe, butno probate of his estate has been found among Queen Annes County records.
"William Sparks, Jr. had three brothers who, along with himself, werenamed in their father's will of June 1709. They were: George Sparks,born about 1679; John Sparks, born about 1684; and Joseph Sparks, bornabout 1689. The elder William Sparks also mentioned a deceased daughterin his will who had married a man named Hynson..."
"Prior to the creation of St. Luke's Parish in Queen Anne's County,the parish which included the area where the Sparks family lived was St.Paul's Parish, the records for which, unfortunately, have not beenpreserved. In 1728, a petition addressed to the Upper and Lower Housesof the Assembly of the Province of Maryland was circulated forsignatures. It requested that a new parish be created because "many soulshave to travel as much as twenty to thirty miles to keep the Lord's Day." Among the signers of this petition was "William Sparks, Senr." This wassurely the William Sparks born about 1674 who had been called "WilliamSparks, Jr." until his father died in 1709. In 1728, with his fatherhaving been dead for nearly 20 years and his own son, also named William,having come of age, it was logical that he now be called "Senior."...Thepetitioners were successful, and St. Paul's Parish was divided to formSt. Luke's Parish.
The Sparks family was included in the new parish. (See THE SPARKSQUARTERLY, June, 1998, Whole No. 182, for an article entitled THEESTABLISHING OF ST. LUKE'S CHURCH AT CHURCH HILL, MARYLAND, IN QUEENANNES COUNTY. There is a photograph of the church which stands today andis on the National Register of Historic Places, so declared by the U.S.Department of the Interior.)
"A map showing where the Sparks family of St. Luke's Parish in QueenAnne's County Maryland, lived, appeared on the cover of the QUARTERLY forMarch, 1971, Whole No. 73."
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SQ p. 5459:
The last land record found for William Sparks, Jr. is dated March 3,1729/30. Called "William Sparks of Queen Annes County Planter" in thedeed, he sold to Thomas Honey for 6,000 pounds of tobacco the tract ofland called "Sparks Outlet" comprising 114 acres that he had inheritedfrom his father. His brother, George Sparks and wife Mary, witnessed thefact that William had received payment from Honey. Particularlysignificant is the fact that the wife of William who signed the deed withhim in 1729/30 was Ann Sparks. Both signed by mark. Margaret (Sample)Sparks must have died prior to 1729 and Ann must have been a second wifeof William Sparks, Jr.
The Sparks family headed by the senior William Sparks were members of theChurch of England, and they worshipped at St. Paul's Church atCenterville, now the seat of justice of Queen Annes County.Unfortunately, no records of birth, marriage, and death survive for thisearly period. There is a record, however, from 1728, that reveals thatWilliam Sparks, Jr., along with his brothers, John and George Sparks,were among the members of St. Paul's who petitioned the Maryland GeneralAssembly to create a new parish nearer to their homes. Their petition wasapproved, and St. Luke's Parish, located at Church Hill in Queen AnnesCounty 48 miles east of Annapolis, was created that same year.
Baptisms, marriages, and deaths were recorded at St. Luke's and mostsurvive today. None has been found pertaining to William Sparks, Jr.,however. Another William Sparks, Jr. was recorded as dying on January 15,1731, (under the Gregorian Calendar, 1731), but he was the son of JohnSparks, brother of William. He was called "Junr." in this record so hewould not be confused with his uncle. There is also a record of the deathof an Anne Sparks that reads: "Anne the wife of William Sparks, deced.,December 16, 1730." This was probably the second wife of the William whomwe have designated as "Jr." throughout this sketch.
Maryland landowners were required to pay an annual tax to the colony'sLord Proprietor. It was called a "rent" tax. The 1734 "Rent Roll" forQueen Annes County happens to survive, and it shows "William Sparks" asstill owning a tract called "Royston," that he had purchased in 1722, aswell as "Adventure" that had once be longed to his father, William Sparks(died 1709). No further reference to William Sparks, Jr. has beenfound, nor has research by Dr. Gibb, our Maryland researcher, revealedany record of his selling either of these two tracts. We believe that heeither died about 1734 or that, possibly, he moved with his son, WilliamSample Sparks, to Frederick County, Maryland and, perhaps, died there.
William Sample Sparks, son of William, Jr. and Margaret (Sample) Sparks(he was probably their eldest son) was born about 1700.
The marriage record in the register of St. Luke's Parish dated August 4,1732, for a William Sparks and Mary Courmon (or Corman) may have beenthat of William Sample Sparks, but we cannot be sure. If so, it wouldsurely have been a second marriage for him. Our only actual record inQueen Annes County in which his full name appeared is on page 236 of theRegister of St. Luke's Parish under the financial accounts for the year1736. William Sample Sparks was recorded there as having moved awaywithout paying his annual Church of England tax required of every adultmale regardless of actual Church membership. William Sample Sparks hadleft for Frederick County still owing six pence.
In moving west to Frederick County, William Sample Sparks had eitheraccompanied or followed his uncle, Joseph Sparks, to the part ofFrederick County that is now (since 1837) the western portion of CarrollCounty, Maryland. It is possible that, as noted above, his widowedfather, William Sparks, Jr., accompanied him and died there.
As noted earlier, an article devoted to William Sample Sparks appeared inthe QUARTERLY of December
1989, Whole No. 148, although at that time we believed that his mother'smaiden name had been Margaret Hamilton based on the erroneously copieddocument discussed near the beginning of the present article. As noted inthe December 1989 article as well as that of June 1997, records existproving that William Sample Sparks moved with members of his family fromFrederick County, Maryland, to the Forks of the Yadkin in Rowan County,North Carolina, in about 1754. There he operated an ordinary, or inn.Since we have found no record of his owning land while living inFrederick County, Maryland, it is quite possible that he had operated anordinary there, also. Readers are referred to the two articles citedabove for further details of the life of William Sample Sparks. Webelieve that he died in North Carolina about 1765.
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spouse: Sample, Margaret (~1676 - <1730)
- m. ABT. 1695
----------child: Sparks, William Sample (~1700 - >1765)
----------child: Sparks, Benjamin (~1715 - )
----------child: Sparks, James (~1715 - >1775)
----------child: Sparks, Abigail (~1725 - )
----------child: Sparks, Sarah (~1725 - )
spouse: ???, Anne (*1699 - 1730)
- m. BEF. 3 MAR 1729/30
William married Margaret Sample before Mar 1696 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland. Margaret was born about 1674; died in 1728 in Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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1773 - 1858 (84 years)