This post was updated on November 25, 2025 to fix broken links and add some additional information. A list of additional posts on the Sparks can be found here: Sparks Family History.
My Sparks ancestors were from Queen Anne's County, Maryland and the family is thought to originate from England. The earliest references I've seen to Sparks in Maryland are for a William and John Sparks who came from Fareham Parish, Hampshire, England, to Maryland in the 1600's. They are possibly two of the four sons of Thomas Sparks and Joanne Davis of Fareham Parish, Hampshire England. The name is also commonly spelled as Sparkes and I've seen my ancestor's records spelled both ways.
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| Crest at The Sparks Family Tree |
William Sparks was born about 1640, migrated to Maryland and, by 1672, he had purchased land in what was then Talbot County, now Queen Anne's County. His primary plantation was located "on the east side of Chester River near the head of a small branch of Island Creek." On a current map of Queen Anne's County, this can be found a few miles southwest of Church Hill, Maryland. William Sr.'s son William Jr., remained in Queen Anne's County but by 1736 William Jr.'s son, William Sample Sparks, had migrated west to what was to become Frederick County. In about the spring of 1754, William Sample Sparks, his sons and some of his cousins moved to "The Forks of the Yadkin" in northwestern North Carolina.
My Sparks family stayed in Maryland, so they are not part of the North Carolina Sparks. The furthest I've traced my Sparks tree back is Samuel Sparks, born around 1827 in Maryland. He married Susan Godwin in 1849 in Queen Anne's County, Maryland and their daughter Arianna is my great-grandmother. Update: Land records in Maryland showed that Samuel's father was Daniel Sparks.
The Sparks Family Association was a great source of information on Sparks family history. While the association was disbanded after the last founder's death, the information from the quarterly newsletters has been ported here: Sparks Family Association Quarterly Newsletters It's worth a look if you have Sparks in your family tree.
Here's an early tree referencing Thomas Sparks showing a line from England to Maryland:
1 Thomas Sparks b: Abt. 1615 in Fareham Parish, Hampshire, England
. +Joanne Davis b: Abt. 1619 in Fareham Parish, Hampshire, England m: October 19, 1635 in Fareham Parish, Hampshire Co. En
. 2 William Sparks, Sr b: Abt. 1640 in England d: Abt. 1709 in Queen Annes Co., Md
.... +Mary ( Wright ?)
.... 3 William Sparks, Jr. b: Abt. 1674 in Queen Annes Co., Md d: Aft. 1734
....... +Margaret Ann Hamilton
....... 4 William Sample Sparks b: Abt. 1705 d: Aft. 1764 in Maryland
.......... +Rachel Unknown
.......... 5 William Sparks b: 1725 in Frederick, Md. or Queen Anne's County, Md. d: Abt. 1802 in Surrey Co., NC
One thing I've found is that most of the research available online is for Sparks that moved away from Maryland. I have not researched this family extensively and would love to get in touch with anyone researching the Sparks that stayed in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
William Sparks was my 9th great grandfather... that is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm related to William Sparks Sr and his son Joseph!!
DeleteEric Sparkes
Me to
DeleteMy Grandmother was Isabelle Sparks.. Searching for history of family.
ReplyDeleteLeila, sorry for the delayed response! Do you have any dates or a location for Isabelle?
DeleteVery interesting to see the movements after moving to the States. There are many variants of the coats. As you are using our variant and motto, maybe I can throw some light on the migration. We can follow our heraldry back to its grant in the 1465 and nee back to biblical times, but we lost a generation when many Sparkes moved to the States as Quakers to evade percussion following Act of Uniformity 1662 (Quaker Act). That's when the E was dropped from the name. Many returned to England 1688 a year after the Declaration of Indulgence when James II said we all had to play nicely together.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to know what Americans make of the cat?
Thanks for the info on the Sparkes history! This was one of my early posts and I can see that I need to update the links. The crest picture I posted came from The Sparks Family Tree website which I don't think exists now. The Sparks Family Association put out a quarterly newsletter for 50 years and they used that crest on their original website too. It looks like the newsletter contents have been posted here. https://www.sparksfamilyassn.org/
DeleteBy the early 1700s, the Sparks in Queen Anne's County, Maryland (where mine are from) were members of St. Paul's and then St. Luke's Episcopal church. It's certainly possible that some of the earlier family were Quakers. The newsletter has some info on the early Maryland settlers here: https://www.sparksfamilyassn.org/php/view_pages.php?article=024-A - Thomas Sparks
The newsletter had some articles on their take on the coat of arms here:
https://sparksfamilyassn.org/php/view_pages.php?article=CoatofArms
This article gives some details on the Sparks that settled in Maryland: https://sparksfamilyassn.org/php/view_pages.php?article=073-A
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