Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva's Black History

Record Detail

Record #91 from Free Black Families of Colonial Delmarva (abstracted by Paul Heinegg)

State Maryland
County (Primary) Somerset
Other Counties
Family Name Sparksman
Family History Notes 1. Elizabeth Sparkman, born say 1692, was the servant of Nathaniel Roach of Coventry Parish at Annamessex on 8 March 1711/2 when she confessed to the Somerset County court that she had a child by Indian Robin. The court ordered that she receive 20 lashes, serve her master another two years for the trouble of his house and the court fees and bound her son George to her master. She was the servant of Alexander Hall of Annamessex on 22 May 1718 when she pled guilty to having another illegitimate child [Judicial Record 1711-13, 133-4; 1718, 91]. She was the mother of 2 i. George1, born 6 August 1711. 2. George1 Sparkman, born 6 August 1711, and Jonas Hodgskin paid a fine of 6 pence for assaulting Henry Reynolds in Somerset Parish in 1735 [Judicial Record 1711-13, 133-4; 1735-7, 98]. He was taxable in Henry Scholfield's Pocomoke Hundred, Somerset County household in 1739 and 1740 [List of Tithables]. He was probably the father of 3 i. Stephen, born say 1737. 3. Stephen Sparksman, born say 1737, was taxable in the Somerset County, Maryland household of Thomas White in 1753 [List of Tithables] and was taxable in Little Creek Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, from 1765 to 1797 when he was a "Mulattoe struck off" the list (probably due to old age). He was called a cordwainer in May 1772 when the Kent County grand jury found in his favor when he was accused of stealing eight bushels of corn from William Corse [DSA, RG 3805, MS case files, May 1772 indictments]. He was head of a Little Creek Hundred, Kent County household of 5 "other free" in 1800 [DE:32]. Perhaps he was the father of i. Caleb, a delinquent taxable in Duck Creek Hundred, Kent County in 1781. ii. George2, born before 1776, head of a Worcester County household of 7 "free colored" in 1830. Another member of the Sparksman family was i. Leah, born say 1778, a "free Mulatto," married William Wilson, a slave, on 24 March 1799 in St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore, Maryland [Reamy, Records of St. Paul's Parish, I:126].
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[Author (if known)], Free Black Families of Colonial Delmarva (abstracted by Paul Heinegg), [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.

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