May 8, 2014
Pages 1698
Whole Number 88
EDWARD SPARKS, born ca. 1613, OF BOSTON
According to Charles Edward Banks's Planters of the Commonwealth, 1620 -1640, published in 1961, EDWARD SPARKS came to Boston on a ship called the Increase of London under the command of Robert Lea in 1635. The ship left England in the latter part of April, 1635, and arrived at Boston late in July. According to the record, EDWARD SPARKS was 22 years old in 1635, thus born ca. 1613. He was described in the ship's records as a servant, meaning that, in order to earn his passage to the New World, young Edward had agreed to serve whoever paid his passage for a given number of years (often seven). It is probable that the ship's captain, Robert Lea, had given Edward passage on the Increase of London and that he then "sold" his service to some Boston merchant after reaching America. We have no knowledge of what became of this EDWARD SPARKS, but he may well be the ancestor of one of the branches of the Sparks family in America.