Mrs. Mary* (..) Sparks, (immigrant)

Notes:

possibly Mary Wright.

Sparks, William (<1646 - ~1709) - male
b. BEF. 6 AUG 1646 in Hampshire, England
d. ABT. 21 JUN 1709 in Queen Annes County, MD
father: Sparks, Thomas (~1615 - <1707)
mother: Davis, Joane (~1619 - )

Below we will find several quotes from the SPARKS QUARTERLY from articles published for a 50 year period, each adding new information andsome correcting earlier data. In the issue for December 1992, Whole No.160, from pg. 4025 through page 4034, several corrections or augmentations were published. Rather than copy this whole article aswritten, relevant portions will hereinafter be inserted near the earlierdata which it corrects or supplements. Such information will be inbrackets [ ], and will bear the notation "No. 160, p. xxx".

See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, Dec 1970, Whole No. 72, pg 1362: IMMIGRANTSNAMED SPARKS WHO CAME TO MARYLAND BEFORE 1675.


"That part of North America now called Maryland was first settled bywhite people in 1631 when William Claiborne came over from the colony ofVirginia and established a trading post on Kent Island. He remainedwithout neighbors until 1634 when the first colonists, led by LeonardCalvert, arrived from England in the vessels called the ARK and the DOVE,and founded the county of St. Marys. The future of the colony (namedTerrae Marie or Maryland in honor of Queen Henrietta Marie) was assured.Thereafter, settlers from England poured in by shipload after shipload."Each freeman who came to Maryland was given 100 acres of land forhimself, his wife and each child over age sixteen. In addition, he wasgiven 50 acres for each child under age sixteen and for each "servant" hebrought with him. "Servants" were persons brought in for hire andobligated to work or in some other manner pay for their transportation.In general, these persons were farmers, mechanics, masons, carpenters,shipbuilders, and often they were educated clerks and teachers.


"Generally speaking, the lot of a servant was not especiallyunpleasant. The indenture usually lasted from two to six years and atthe end provision was made to give him or her a degree of independence.In the case of a male servant, he was given fifty acres of land, an ox, agun, two hoes, and a modest amount of clothing. If the servant were afemale, she received a skirt, waistcoat, apron, smock, cap, shoes andstockings, and three barrels of Indian corn.


"This provision for encouraging new colonists proved so popular thatseven years after the colony was established the land allowance wasreduced from 100 acres to 50 acres for adults and to 25 acres for eachchild under age sixteen. In like manner, the early liberal allowance ofland for transporting colonists was tightened. Initially thetransportation of five men was worth 2000 acres, but in 1636 this waschanged to require the transportation of ten men for this amount of land,and in 1641 it was again changed to require twenty men and women to beworth 2000 acres.


"In many cases, the servant paid for his transportation by simplytransfering the acreage he was to receive as a new colonist to the personwho transported him. In turn, the person who provided the transportationmight transfer his right to the land to another person who had n o actualpart in arranging or providing the transport- ation. The system wasfinally abolished in 1683.


[See SQ No. 160, p. 4026: after repeating the above information takenfrom the article published in December 1970, No. 72, (commencing on page1362), see the following: "Our reason reason for including thisdescription of immigration to Maryland during much of the seventeenthcentury is because we believe, although we cannot prove beyond any doubt,that the William Sparks who died in 1709 in Queen Annes County was thesame William Sparks who had been brought to Maryland in 1662 by a mannamed Thomas Skillington. (On page 1363 of the December 1970 issue of theQUARTERLY, Whole No . 72, we mistakenly copied his name as ThomasSkillingham, and this error was repeated on page 1381 of the March 1971issue, Whole No. 73.)]


[Dr. Sparks noted in his 1970 article, cited above, that the recordsof the assigning of land to persons transporting themselves or others toMaryland are preserved at the Maryland Hall of Records in Annapolis . Wehave obtained a photographic copy of each of the two records pertainingto William Sparks who came to Maryland in 1662. The first of these isfound in Liber 6, called "Patents," page 71, entry #359, and reads asfollows:


I Thomas Skillington of the province of Maryland do assign untoGeorge Richardson all my right and Title of these following Rights ofLand first For Thomas Skillington and Mary his wife, William Sparks,Servants in all Six Ann Powell, Mary Webb, John Green as wittness myhand this 2d of the 10 Month 1663.
[signed] ThomasSkillington]


[From the wording of this transfer of Skillington's claim for land, itis difficult to determine the status of William Sparks. It appears thatAnn Powell, Mary Webb, and John Green were definitely "servants," butWilliam Sparks may not have been a servant, but was simply one of the sixpersons entitled to land. The manner in which Skillington wrote the dateof this transfer of his "Rights of Land" to Richardson is significant.In other entries on this same page, as well as on preceding andsucceeding pages, the name of the month is given. Members of the Quakerfaith, however, refused to use what they considered pagan names for themonths in the Julian calendar, and substituted numbers. Under the Juliancalendar, which would continue to be used in England and her coloniesuntil 1752, March 25th was designated as the beginning of each new year.March was thus considered to be the first month while February wasconsidered to be the twelfth month . Thus, when Skillington dated histransfer of land rights to Richardson as "this 2d of the 10 Month 1663,"he substituted the number 10 for the month of December. The date of thistransfer under the Julian calendar was thus, December 2, 1663.]


[Although we have found no further references to Thomas Skillington inrelationship to William Sparks, there is further reason to believe thatSkillington was a Quaker. An entry appears in the minutes of the ThirdHaven Meeting of the Quaker denomination in Maryland which reads :"Kenellam Skillington of Talbot County, planter, and Lydia Craxtill, lateof Barbados, speinster, married 20 8th month, 1692, at home of ThomasSkillington."]


[The next entry (#372) among Maryland's land patents in Liber 6containing a reference to William Sparks is dated January 5, 1663. Underthe Julian calendar, the year 1663 extended from what would, under theGregorian Calendar, have been March 25, 1663, through March 24, 1664.Under the Gregorian Calendar (in use in England and America after 1752) ,entry #372 was made just a month and three days after entry #359, quotedabove.]


[Entry #372 reveals that George Richardson obtained a warrant for 1300acres of land based on his being credited with transporting himself and aMary Richardson, who may have been his wife, along with twenty-fourothers. These included the six individuals whose transportation had been"assigned" to him by Thomas Skillington, plus six others that had beentransported by Robert Blurkhorse and likewise assigned to him, along withfour individuals transported by John Edmondson and also assigned toRichardson. We can assume that Richardson rewarded rewarded Skillington,Blurkhorse, and Edmondson in some manner for transferring these landrights to him. In the transcription of the entire text of entry #359which follows, it will be seen that the name of Thomas and MarySkillington was mistakenly spelled "Skillinson" and that William Sparkswas called "William Sparke."]


[[Liber 6, Entry #372, dated 5th January 1663 (i.e. 1664 under theGregorian Calendar) Punctuation has been added for clarity in thistranscription. Then came George Richardson and demands Land for thetransportation of himself in Anno 1661, Mary Richardson in 1663, ThomasHayward in 1662, Elizabeth Clarke 1661, Anthony Willson 1659; JohnSkitters 1656 ; Thomas Skillinson 1653; Mary Skillinson 1660, WilliamSparke [and] Ann Powell in 1662, Mary Webb 1661. John Green 1663, JohnGary 1660, Jno Morfett[?] 1663, were Entered by Robert Blurkhorse, dittodie, assigned unto the said Richardson. Francis Devine [and] Mary Devine1660, Edward Goodman 1656, Robert Stapleford 1661, Richard Richardson1663, Elizabeth Cordrass 1661 . Ditto Richardson Enters more rights,Viz: William Lile 1653, Priscilla Lile 1656; John Cooke, James Graner,John Housmond, and Susanna Eastneck, these four assignd him from JohnEdmondson as per assignment. Warrant Issued, ditto die, in the saidRichardsons Name for 1300 Acres, being for all the above mentionedRights, returnable 5t h July next.


[While George Richardson spelled Thomas and Mary Skillington's name as"Skillinson," and William Sparks as "William Sparke," there can be nodoubt that the six immigrants whose land rights he had acquired fromThomas Skillington (Entry #359) were among those for whom he subsequentlyobtained his warrant for 1,300 acres of Maryland land. It should benoted that Entry #372 also identifies the precise year (1662) thatWilliam Sparks came to America. Again, we must emphasize, however , thatwe have no compelling proof that he was the same William Sparks (died1709) for whom we have many subsequent Maryland records. Their being thesame person, however, seems highly probable. {Here ends the insert fromWhole No. 160, at p. 4027}]


"In the index which follows, the names of many colonists have beenomitted and in cases where there were many names, only those settlersnamed SPARKS have been included in the interest of brevity. In futureissues of the QUARTERLY, we hope to be able to trace further the recordof these Sparks immigrants to Maryland. The book and page numbers whichappear in the following list refer to the bound volumes at the Hall ofRecords in Annapolis, MD, entitled INDEX OF EARLY SETTLERS, MARYLAND,1633-1680. (Here find list of names.)


SPARKS QUARTERLY March, 1971, Whole No. 73, SPARKS FAMILIES IN KENT,TALBOT AND QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTIES, MARYLAND, pp. 1372-1374:


"The history of the Colony of Maryland begins with the first LordBaltimore (George Calvert), convert to the Roman Catholic faith, whoprevailed upon King James I to grant him a colony along the Atlanticcoast which would serve as an asylum for Englishmen seeking religiousfreedom. Although the first Lord Baltimore died before his dream couldbe realized, the King granted the promised charter to his son , CeciliusCalvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, on June 20, 1632.


"Leonard Calvert, brother to Cecilius, became the Colony's firstgovernor. Although the 2nd Lord Baltimore never visited his colony, hesupervised its development until his death in 1675 and has often beenreferred to as the First Lord Proprietor. [JS Note: Leonard Calvert adirect ancestor of James J. Sparks through James's paternal grandmother,Mary Theresa (Stone) Sparks.]


"Before Lord Baltimore could arrange to send the fist colonists to hiscolony, a Virginian named William Claiborne had established a tradingpost on Kent Island. For many decades thereafter there was conflictbetween the Virginia traders and settlers on Kent Island (which is nowpart of Queen Anne's County) and the settlers brought from England to theColony by Lord Baltimore. There were also agree- ments with William Pennregarding the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania and with theDuke of York regarding the boundary between Maryland and Deleware. Therewere also Indian uprisings and civil strife but religious freedomprevailed through all of these troubles.


"In the article appearing (above) Dr. Paul Sparks described the systemby which large numbers of settlers were brought to Maryland from Englandin the 1600's. Many of the settlers came as "indentured servants,"individuals and who had traded a term of service, (from two to six yearsfor adults and longer for children), for the cost of passage to America.The individual who wished to emigrate but could not afford the passagewould get in touch with a ship master or his agent and a contract wouldbe drawn up in which the passenger agreed to serve the ship master or hisagent for a stated term of years. When the passenger, now an "indentured servant", reached his destination, his master was free to sellthe passenger's services to any purchaser in order to recoup the expenseof passange. The "servant" then went to live with and work for the newfor the number of years specified in the contract. (The number of yearsof service varied from one "indentured servant" to another because theirskills varied--the skilled artisan brought a highter price than anordinary laborer; thus the agent would have to demand longer service ofthe laborer in order to his indenture and recover the cost of thevoyage.) Many of the early immigrants to Maryland settled on the easternshore of Chesapeake Bay in the area that is now Queen Anne's County. Itwas here that the branch of the Sparks family settled which is traced inthis Article.


"Kent County, comprising what is now the counties of Cecil, Kent ,Queen Anne's, Talbot and a portion of Caroline, was created officially in1642. In1661,Talbot County was cut off from Kent, although Kent Islandremained as part of Kent County until 1695. In 1706, Talbot County wasdivided to form Queen Anne's County. (Queen Anne's accession to theEnglish throne had occurred four years earlier and the new county wasnamed for her. ) The Sparks family in whom we are currently interestedlived in what became Queen Anne's County in 1706. Edward Sparks lived onKent Island (that portion of Queen Anne's County which extends into theBay. ) William and John Sparks, believed to have been brothers, bothowned property in "West Chester Towne", believed to have been the westernpart of what is now the town of Chester; their land holdings were on theChester River (which forms the northern boundary of Queen Anne' s and thesouthern boundary of Kent County) near the present towns of Centrevilleand Church Hill. Island Creek and Southeast Creek are mentioned in thedeed describing the land of William Sparks. There was also a ThomasSparks who was a servant of Richard Tilghman in 1671 who lived on ChesterRiver.


"It is important to keep in mind that records of this branch of theSparks family are found in Kent County up until 1661 when Talbot Countywas set apart from Kent County. From 1661 until 1706, the records ofthis family were recorded in both Kent and Talbot because their land layin both counties and the boundary line was often uncertain. Furthermore,Kent Island remained part of Kent County until 1695. After 1706, recordsof the family are found chiefly in Queen Anne's County , which was carvedout of Talbot County. In 1706 Kent Island also became a part of QueenAnne's County. [nd of article at page 1374.]


See THE SPARKS QUARTERLY, March, 1971, No. 73, pp. 1381-1389; SPARKSFAMILIES IN KENT, TALBOT AND QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTIES, MARYLAND; WILLIAMSPARKS (d . 1709):


"Our earliest reference to a William Sparks in Maryland is dated 1663when Thomas Skillington sold to George Richardson the land which he hadbeen granted by the Lord Proprietor for having transported six settlersto the Province, one of whom was William Sparks. The other five werehimself, his wife Mary, Ann Powell, Mary Webb and John Green. A littlelater the same year George Richardson, in making claim for the land soldto him by Thomas Skillington, Richardson gave William Sparks's name asWilliam Sparke and the date of his coming to Maryland as 1662 . Neitherthe name of Thomas Skillington nor George Richardson has been found amongthe records of Kent, Talbot, and Queen Anne's County ; perhaps thisWilliam Sparks was not the William Sparks who died in Queen Anne's Countyin 1709. Further research will probably determine this.


"Our first definite record of the William Sparks who died in 1709living in the area that is now Queen Anne's County, Maryland, is a deedby which he and a man named Thomas Heather purchased jointly a tract of100 acres from Richard Pernes on July 17, 1672, for 5,60 0 pounds oftobacco. This deed was recorded in Talbot County (Deed Book I, p. 213).The land was described as "Lying and being on the North Side of St.Michaels River beginning at a marked Oake Standing at the head of a Smallbranch Running North West & Runing for breadth down the branch East Southeast 50 poles to a marked gumme tree then North East up the River forLength 320 poles being formerly laid out for Francis Martin." Thewitnesses were James and Mary Murphy.


"Apparently William Sparks and Thomas Heather were businessassociates, perhaps even partners, because five years later, on October16 , 1677, Heather publicly acknowledged that he owed Sparks 20,000pounds of tobacco. In this document, Heather's wife was identified asAnna; the document was witnessed by Ralph Elston, Jr., and RichardDuddley. (Talbot County Deed Book 3, p. 93) Tobacco was the chiefmedium of currency at that time in Maryland and Virginia and remained ascurrency until sometime after the Revolutionary War.


"There is no evidence that William Sparks ever lived on the land inSt. Michael's River, located in what is now the sourthern portion ofQueen Anne's County. On July 21, 1696, William Sparks (called WilliamSparks Senr .) and his wife Mary sold this tract to Alexander Ray for10,000 pounds of tobacco. Apparently he had acquired Thomas Heather'sportion of this land earlier. (See Talbot County Deed Book 7, p. 224.)


[See No. 160, p. 4028]: "When we published the March 1971 article, wehad not discovered the Talbot County deed dated September 17, 1677(Talbot Co. Land Record GG#:85:87) by which Thomas Heather (spelled"Hatherd" in the deed), with the consent of his wife, Anna, sold toWilliam Sparks his share (50 acres) of this 100-acre tract. In thisdeed, both Sparks (spelled Sparkes) and Heather were described as thenbeing residents of Talbot County, but what is especially interestingabout this 1677 deed is that it reveals that it was on this same 100-acre tract that "the said Sparkes now liveth." The tract, as we have noted,was located on "the north side of St. Michaels River. " Today, thisriver is called "Miles River". It is in what is now the southern portionof Queen Annes County.]


["As we noted on page 1381 of the March 1971 issue of the QUARTERLY,there is a Talbot County record dated October 16, 1677, which was just amonth after Heather sold his interest in the land to Sparks, in whichHeather acknowledged a debt to Sparks of 20,000 pounds of tobacco. HowHeather became indebted to Sparks for this sizeable amount we do notknow. It seems probable, however, that what was described as a "valuableconsideration" as Heather's compensation when he sold his share of the100-acre tract to Sparks was actually in the form of a reduction of hisdebt to Sparks. Thomas Heather and William Sparks were obviouslyneighbors and close associates over a period of many years. We wonderwhether there might have been a family relationship.]


[cont. The finding of the September 17, 1677, deed disproves ourstatement at the bottom of page 1381 that "there is no evidence thatWilliam Sparks ever lived on the land on St. Michaels River." We n owknow that he and his family were, indeed, living there in the autumn of1677 and probably had been living there since 1672.


[cont. As noted on page 1381, William Sparks and his wife Mary, soldthis tract of 100 acres for 10,000 pounds of tobacco to Alexander Ray onJuly 21,1696. However, it must have been considerably before 1696 thatWilli am Sparks had moved his family a few miles north to the 250-acretract of land called "Sparks Choice" on the east side of Chester River .We do not have the exact date of his purchase of this larger tract , forwhich he chose the name, but it was about 1681.]


(Continuing in the SPARKS QUARTERLY, pg 1382:)


"During the years from the early 1670's until his death in 1709,William Sparks's name was frequently recorded in the official records ofKent, Talbot, and Queen Anne's Counties. We cannot, however make manystatements of fact regarding his personal life. He was probably bornabout 1640 in England. His wife's name was Mary and they had at leastfive children, four sons and one daughter. William Sparks graduallyacquired a considerable amount of land. At one time he owned nearly 1,000acres on Island Creek, a tributary of Southeast Creek, which in turn is atributary of Chester River. He was a member of the Anglican faith.


"On August 16, 1681, William Sparks purchased a tract of 100 acresfrom Michael Hackett and his wife Mary of Talbot County for 5,000 poundsof tobacco. This tract had originally been granted on October 16, 1670,to John Mitchell at which time it had been given the name "Adventure."Mitchell had later sold it to Hackett, who sold it to William Sparks.This deed of 1681 (Book 4, p. 68) and the rent rolls describe the tractas lying on the south side of Chester River and on the south-east side ofIsland Creek, and adjoining land owned by John Hawkins. The deed bywhich William Sparks purchased this tract was witnessed by HenryWillcockes and John Parsons. On June 1, 1691, William Sparks sold thistract along with 100 additional acres to Samuel Withers (Book 5, p. 336). (John Hawkins, who owned land adjoining William Sparks's "Adventure ,also owned land on Coursey's Creek; in 1706 the Assembly passed an act toestablish the county-seat of Queen Anne's County on a tract of 100 acres"upon the plantation of Major John Hawkins, in Coursey 's Creek to becalled Queens-Towne." After the Revolution, however, the county seat wasmoved to Centreville. John Hawkins was a vestryman of the parish churchat Chester; when he died in 1718 he was succeeded by Augustine Thompson,another close friend and neighbor of the Sparks family.


"At about the same time that William Sparks purchased "Adventure "from Michael Hackett, he also acquired a tract of 250 acres which hadbeen originally as part of a 450-acre tract for Michael Hackett o n July18, 1681. This 250-acre tract was known as "Sparks Choice" and waslocated on the "east side of Chester River near the head of a smallbranch of Island Creek." Although we have not found the actual patent bywhich he acquired this important tract, we know from the Rent Rolls andsubsequent deeds that this was the land on which Wil liam Sparks and hisfamily actually lived. Anthony Ivy owned the remaining 200 acres in theoriginal tract of 450 acres of Michael Hackett.


"On September 10, 1684, William Sparks obtained a patent from theProvince of Maryland for another tract of land adjoining his homeplantation comprising 100 acres. It had been surveyed for him on June21, 1683 ( Rent Rolls, Queen Anne's County, p. 242). To this new tract,he gave the name "Sparks Own", or "Sparks Oune" as it was first recordedin Talbot County Deed Book A, p. 507, although it had been previouslyowned by Anthony Ivy and his wife Anne. William Sparks purchas- ed thistract from William Coursey, Jr., assignee for Col. Vinceant Lowe who hadobtained it as part of a tract of 3,000 acres granted to him on March 20,1683. The description of William Sparks's tract reads as follows on thepatent dated Septem- ber 10, 1683: "...all that tract or parcell of landcalled Sparks Oune lying in the county of Talbott on the east side ofChester River beginning at a marked oake standing neere the head of abranch on the north side of Island Creeke and running north north-westparallel with a line of a tract of land he ld by Michaell Hackett toCapt. Hide one hundred perches untill it intersects an east and by southline of a parcell of land formerly lai d out for John Mitchell and thenrunning with the said line two hundred perches untill it come to aparcell of land called Sparks Choice and running thence south south-eastone hundred perches untill it comes to a parcell of land called MountHope lately taken up by Henry Wilcocks and from the end of that said linewest and north to the first tree two hundred perches containing...onehundred acres..." For this grant William Sparks agreed to pay the LordProprietor "Rent of four Shillings Sterling in Silver or Gold." (TalbotCounty Land Records, Book SD #A, p.507.)


"Island Creek, mentioned in the patent for "Sparks Own", has itssource about four miles northeast of Centreville, the county seat ofQueen Annes County. It meanders nearly due north as a gentle streamthrough fairly level land until it reaches Southeast Creek, nearly ninemiles away. There , Southeast Creek empties into the Chester River aboutthree miles west of the community of Church Hill. The surrounding areais low and inclined to be marshy. It was, and is, an agricultural area.One of the roads serving the area today is Sparks Mill Road.


"On October 22, 1687, a tract of 114 acres known as "Sparks Outlet "was surveyed for William Sparks. The patent for this tract was issued onJune 12, 1688 (Talbot County Deed Book 2, p. 625). According to thispatent, this tract was assigned to Sparks by Thomas Smithson who was anassignee of Daniel Walker, all being of Talbot County . Walker hadacquired this tract as part of a grant of 1,200 acres on June 13, 1687.In the patent, it is described as "that tract or parcel of land calledSparkes Outlett lyeing in Talbott County neare Chester River betwixt theLand of the said William Sparkes and the Land of John Hawkins beginningat a marked Red oake standing in or near the line of John Hawkins and--?-- runs thence south-west most eighty perches to another marked Redoake thence southeast forty perches to a marked blacke oake att theCorner of a little pocoson, thence east and by south one hundred sixtyperches, and from the end there of Running north and by east towards theLand of John Hawkins one hundred and fourteen perches and from the end ofthe north and by east line runing west and by north to the first Red OakeContaining within the sd lines and now laid out for one hundred andfourteen Acres be it more or less according to the Certificate of surveythereof taken and Returned into the Land office att the City of St.Maries being date the twenty second day of October one thousand sixhundred eighty seaven..." For this tract William Sparks promised to paythe Lord Proprietor "Rent of foure shillings and seven pence sterling insilver or Gold..."


"A near neighbor of William Sparks was John Hamer. On May 12, 1689,William Sparks was named by Hannah Hamer, wife of John Hamer, as her"true and lawful attorney" in connection with the sale of some land.(Tal. Co. Deed Bk 5, p 232)


"On June 1, 1691, William Sparks sold lot No. 6 in the Town of WestChester to John Salter, Joyner, "for a valuable consideration by me inhand already received." (Talbot County Deed Book 7, p. 53). As on otheroccasions, William Sparks signed this deed by mark. The witnesses wereJohn Hamer and William Godinge. John Salter appears to have been a closefriend of William Sparks. He was a prominent man in the area that becameQueen Anne's County in 1707 and was a member of the House of Delegatesfrom 1708 to 1711. He was also a member of the Probate Court and avestryman of St. Paul's Parish. John Salter was a witness along withJohn Hamer, Jr., to William Sparks's will when it was probated in 1709.As noted earlier in the sketch on John Sparks who died in 1700, this sameJohn Salter purchased a lot in West Chester from John Sparks in 1695.There is little doubt that John Sparks (died 1700) and William Sparks(died 1709) were brothers."


"On October 20, 1691, William Sparks purchased from Robert and AnnSmith a
tract of 200 acres for 8,500 pounds of tobacco. This tract was part of alarger tract called "Wrights Choyse" and was located on the south side ofChester River "and on the North Side of the South East branch of a Creekin the Said River called Island Creek." In the descr iption of thistract, there is a reference to an adjoining tract "for merly Layde outfor Robert Smith." It must have been located very near William Sparks'sother holdings. The witnesses to this deed were Thomas Beckles andSollomon Wright. (Talbot County Deed Book 5, p. 328) (Robert Smith diedabout 1703 and Anthony Ivy and Renatus Smith were the executors of hisestate. They sold his land on Island Creek (150-acres) to John Fowler andit was noted in the deed that it adjoined land owned by John Hawkins,John Singleton, and Thomas Norris . (See Emory's history of Queen Anne'sCounty, p. 39.) Solomon Wright, whose wife's name was Anna, was a memberof a large and prominent family in Queen Anne's County; he was a churchwarden in 1698. We believe that there were family connection between theWright and Sparks families.) "The day following his purchase of this200-acre tract, William Sparks and his wife Mary sold 200 acres of theirother land to Samuel Withers for 8,000 pounds of tobacco. In allprobability, William Sparks increased the value of his other holdingsthrough this purchase and sale. As part of the 200 acres which he soldto Withers was "Sparks Own" which he had acquired in 1684. The other100 acres was a portion of his 250 acre tract called "Sparks Choice"which he had acquired in 1681. The witnesses to this deed were Solomon Wright, John Salter, and John Chafe. (Talbot


(For limitations of space these notes are continued in notes for (female) Sparks - 1st Child )


spouse: ???, Mary (~1640 - 1730)
- m. 1674 in Queen Annes County, Maryland
----------child: Sparks, William Jr. (~1674 - ~1735)
----------child: Sparks, George (~1678 - )
----------child: Sparks, John (~1684 - 1737)
----------child: Sparks, Joseph (~1689 - <1749)

Name:
We know from a number of sources that the wife of William Sparks had the given name Mary, but we have found no clue by which we can identify her maiden surname. She was living at the time that William Sparks made his will, and he provided for her in a way that was typical at the time.

Mary* married William* Sparks, Sr (immigrant) about 1665 in Maryland. William* (son of Thomas* Sparks and Joanne* Davis) was born before 6 Aug 1646 in Hampshire Co, England; was christened on 6 Aug 1646 in Fareham Parish, Hampshire Co, England; died after 21 Jun 1709 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. (daughter) Sparks was born about 1666 in Maryland; died before 1709.
2. William Sparks, Jr was born about 1674 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland; died after 1734 in Queen Anne's Co, Maryland.
3. George Sparks was born in 1679 in Maryland; died after 1725.
4. John Sparks was born in 1684 in Maryland; died on 19 Apr 1737 in Maryland.
5. Joseph* Sparks, Sr was born about 1690 in Talbot Co, Maryland; died before May 1749 in Monocacy Area, Frederick Co, Maryland.