JOSEPH SPARKS (ca.1730-1809) OF FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND
& BEDFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
by Paul E. Sparks
(Editor's Note: It is quite logical to assume that the persons named SPARKS who were in early
Frederick County, Maryland, when it was formed from part of Prince George's County in 1748,
were descendants of William Sparks who had died in 1709 in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
Two of the records which tie the two counties together pertain to William Sample Sparks who
was in Queen Anne's County prior to 1736 and who was in Frederick County in 1749. Other
records pertain to Joseph Sparks, born about 1690 and son of William Sparks [died 1709], who
very probably was the Joseph Sparks who died in Frederick County in 1749. Perhaps records will
be found someday to prove that this assumption is correct. For further information about the
Sparkses of early Maryland, see the March 1971 issue of the QUARTERLY, Whole No. 73.)
Joseph Sparks, the patriarch of the Sparkses of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, was born about
1730, probably in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and was a son of Joseph and Mary Sparks.
Joseph Sparks, Senior died intestate in the spring of 1749 in Frederick County, Maryland, and his
wife, Mary Sparks, was appointed as his administratrix. An inventory of his personal property
was recorded on May 1, 1749, by Joseph Wood and William Carmack. William Sample Sparks
and Rachel Sparks attested to the inventory as "kinn" of the deceased. (John Frederick Dorman,
an authority of Maryland genealogy, has noted (p. 275) in Genealogical Research: Methods and
Sources, published in 1980, that: "Maryland colonial inventories are unique in that they were
signed by the two nearest of kin and two greatest creditors. The relatives frequently were
brothers or brothers-in-law, rather than children, and it is sometimes possible to establish family
connections through these signatures when other records fail to identify the family of the
deceased.") On June 21, 1749, Mary Sparks presented the inventory of her husband's property to
the Frederick County Court as a "just and perfect" one. Later that year, on November 20th, she
made a final settlement of the estate.
In addition to his property, Joseph Sparks left a large family consisting of seven sons and five
daughters, and the following year (1750) the children apparently asked for their share of his
estate. This action may have been prompted by the large size of the family and the necessity for
some of the children, especially the boys, to move away from Frederick County to look for larger
and perhaps more fertile farming land. Shortly after the death of Joseph Sparks, Sr. , at least two
of the older sons were married, and others were making plans to get married, thus it is easy to
conclude that the children became impatient to get their share of their father's estate. (Unlike
today, in colonial times heirs living at a distance from the deceased had a very difficult time
collecting their share of an estate.) Whatever the reason, it probably became necessary for the
children of Joseph Sparks to ask the Frederick County Court to intervene on their behalf.
The following memorandum was adopted by the Frederick County Court at its August term of
1750:
Memorandum this day towit : The twenty second day of August Anno Dom seventeen hundred
and fifty. Mary Sparks, Col. Henry Munday and Thomas Wilson (Toms Creek) of Frederick
County entered into and executed a certain writing obligatory in one hundred and fifty three
pounds, one shilling, current money, to be paid unto Solomon, Joseph, Charles, Jonas, Jonathan,
William, George, Merum, Mary, Ann, Rebecka and Sarah Sparks on condition that the above
bounden Mary Sparks, or some person on her behalf, shall and do well satisfie and pay unto the
above named Solomon, Joseph, Charles, Jonas, Jonathan, William, George, Merum, Mary, Ann,
Rebecka and Sarah Sparks, their executors, administrators, assigns or lawful guardian or
guardians, their respective parts or portions of Joseph Sparks, deceased, his estate according to
Act of Assembly in such cases made and provided.
Shortly after the apportionment of the estate of Joseph Sparks, three of his sons, Solomon, Jonas,
and probably Jonathan, went southward to western North Carolina where they settled in Rowan
County. (See the December 1955 and the March 1964 issues of the QUARTERLY, Whole Nos.
12 and 45, respectively, for further accounts of Solomon and Jonas Sparks.) Three others sons of
Joseph Sparks, George, Charles, and William, went to Pennsylvania where they settled in what
ultimately became Washington County. (See the June 1963 issue of the QUARTERLY, Whole
No. 42, for a further account of these three men.) We have no further information about the five
daughters of Joseph and Mary Sparks of Frederick County, Maryland.
The remaining son, Joseph Sparks, Junior, who is the subject of this article, was one of the oldest
(if not the oldest) of the children of Joseph and Mary Sparks, and perhaps because of his position
as the head of the family, he very likely remained with his mother in the area where the family
had settled in Frederick County. Here it was that he married Mary McDaniel, apparently about
1752. She was probably born in the 1730's and was a daughter of James and Rebecca McDaniel.
(When James McDaniel died in 1775 in Frederick County, he named as one of his daughters,
Mary Sparks.)
On November 21, 1752, Joseph Sparks patented fifty acres of land which he named "Sparks
Delight" and which was located on the east side of Beaver Dam Branch. (In the colony of
Maryland, each patentee had the right to choose a name for his tract of land, and this name
became part of the official record.) The land was a part of the holdings of Lord Baltimore, and
Joseph Sparks agreed to pay a rent of two shillings twice each year to Baltimore's agent,
Benjamin Tasker. The rent was to be paid at the City of St. Marys on the feast day of the
Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (March 25) and the feast-day of St. Michael, the Archangel
(September 29). Ten years later, on February 8, 1762, Joseph Sparks and his wife, Mary,
relinquished their claim to this land to Hugh Evans for twenty pounds.
("Sparks Delight," which was bought and sold by Joseph Sparks, should not be confused with
another tract of land, also called "Sparks Delight" and also located in Frederick County which
was patented by William Sparks on July 11, 1749. Both patents called for fifty acres. Their deed
descriptions have been platted and measured carefully by a modern computing technique. In the
case of the "Sparks Delight" patented by Joseph Sparks, the grant actually measures 52.7 acres,
while "Sparks Delight" patented by William Sparks actually measures 47.8 acres. The tracts have
different descriptions and when drawn to scale have quite dissimilar configurations.)
In the fall of 1760, Joseph Sparks decided to move northward from Beaver Dam Branch to the
waters of Big Pipe Creek, and on November 19th he purchased 100 acres of land from Raphael
and Elenor Taney of St. Mary's County, Maryland, for 45 pounds. The land was originally
patented in 1743 by John Digges who had named it "Brothers Agreement." (This patent was
originally a fairly large tract of land, but had been divided into many smaller tracts. In District
No. 6 of Frederick County in 1798, nearly one-third of the land owners paid taxes on land which
had been a part of "Brothers Agreement.") Joseph's land was located on the "south side of a
branch of Piney Creek commonly called Joseph Sparks Branch and about twenty rods west of
said Sparks's spring which emties itself into the said branch." It was further described as the
"parcell of land laid out for Charles Sparks, being part of the re-survey of 'Brothers Agreement'."
A year later, Sparks added an adjoining 50 acres to his farm which he bought from Taney for 21
pounds.
Minutes of the early Frederick County Court give some insight into the community activities of
Joseph Sparks. He was a witness to the will of Thomas Harris on October 2, 1757. He was a
member of the Grand Jury at the August term of court in 1763. At the November 1769 term, he
was appointed by the court as overseer of the road from Big Pipe Creek to Taneytown. The
following year, he made an affidavit that he had attended a trial as a witness for the court for two
days. The March 1779 term of court appointed him as overseer of the main road from Big Pipe
Creek to the "temporary line of the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania."
About 1774, Joseph Sparks, Jr., son of Joseph and Mary (McDaniel) Sparks, and now about
twenty years of age, went to Pennsylvania where he purchased land in Providence Township in
Bedford County. The land was located south of the Juniata River. He was probably accompanied
by his brothers, James Sparks and Solomon Sparks, for all three brothers were in Bedford
County during the Revolutionary War, and both Joseph and Solomon served in a military unit
known as the Rangers. This unit had the responsibility of guarding the frontier from hostile
Indians who were allies of Great Britain. Many years later, Solomon Sparks recalled that his
company remained in Bedford County during 1782 and that, after the war ended, he went back to
Maryland and lived there about two years before returning to Bedford County. (See pages 59-61
of the March 1955 issue of the QUARTERLY, Whole No. 9, for an abstract of his pension file.)
Joseph Sparks, Sr. apparently did not accompany his sons to Pennsylvania, or, if he did, he did
not stay there very long before returning to Frederick County in Maryland. When the 1790
census was taken of Frederick County, he was listed as head of a household consisting of
himself, a male under the age of sixteen, and three females. In 1798, he paid taxes on 146 acres
of land described as "Part of The Re-Survey of Brothers Agreement" and which was valued at
200 pounds.
On April 30, 1800, Joseph Sparks sold his land in Frederick County to James Fisher. Both men
were identified as "of Frederick County." The land was composed of two adjoining tracts located
on the Joseph Sparks Branch which was a tributary of Piney Creek. Joseph signed the deed by
making his mark. There was no dower release to the document; undoubtedly Joseph's wife, Mary
(McDaniel) Sparks, was dead by this time. Perhaps it was her death that prompted the sale.
After the sale of the land, Sparks went to Bedford County, Pennsylvania, arriving there in time to
be listed on the 1800 census. Living in his household was one female, aged 26 to 45. This was, in
all probability, his daughter, Chloe Sparks.
In the winter of 1808/09, Joseph Sparks became ill, and he made his will on March 13, 1809. To
his oldest son, Joseph, Jr. , he left his bed, bed-clothing, etc. To his sons, James and Solomon,
and to his daughters, Mary, Rebeckah, Susannah, Elizabeth, and Sarah, he left three pounds each.
To his youngest daughter, Chloe, and her heirs, if any, he left the rest of his personal and real
property. If she should die without heirs, the property was to be sold (providing a majority of the
remaining heirs agreed) and the estate to be divided among the remaining heirs. He named as his
executors, his son, Joseph Sparks, Jr., and his daughter, Chloe Sparks. Amos McDaniel, Peter
McDaniel, and Joseph O'Neal witnessed the will which was probated on April 3, 1809.
Joseph and Mary (McDaniel) Sparks had nine children, three sons and six daughters. Joseph, Jr.,
the eldest, was born in 1754. Chloe, the youngest child, was probably born about 1770. The other
children have been arranged below in the probable order of their births, but there may be need to
rearrange these as additional data are found.
JOSEPH SPARKS (ca.1730-1809), continued: