Richard SPARROW

Notes:

From: The Great Migration Begins:
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1632
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
REMOVES: Eastham by 1653
OCCUPATION: Yeoman.
FREEMAN: In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen, in close proximity to others admitted on 1 January 1632/3 [ PCR 1:4]. In 7 March 1636/7 Plymouth list of freemen [ PCR 1:52]. In Plymouth section of 1639 list of freemen, and in Eastham section of 1658 list [ PCR 8:174, 202].
EDUCATION: He signed his name to an agreement regarding the Kennebec trade, 6 October 1659 [ PCR 3:171]. His inventory included "a Bible [and] 2 small books" valued at 10s.
OFFICES: Deputy from Eastham to Plymouth General Court, 6 April 1653, 8 June 1655, 3 June 1656 [ PCR 3:24, 79, 99]. Grand jury, 4 June 1639, 6 June 1643, 7 June 1653, 7 June 1659 [ PCR 1:126, 2:56, 3:32, 162]. Jury, 3 March 1639/40, 1 September 1640, 1 February 1640/1, 1 June 1641, 6 July 1641, 6 September 1641, 7 December 1641, 7 June 1642, 7 November 1643, 3 March 1644/5, 28 October 1645, 7 July 1646, 2 March 1646/7, 7 June 1648, 3 October 1648, 6 March 1648/9, 29 October 1649, 6 March 1649/50, 6 June 1650, 2 October 1650, 4 March 1650/1, 7 June 1651, 4 June 1652, 4 June 1657 [ PCR 2:7, 112, 126, 7:16, 18, 20, 22-23, 25, 28, 31, 36, 40-43, 45-47, 49, 52-54, 60, 83]. Petit jury, 1 June 1647, 4 October 1648 of life and death for Allice Bishope [ PCR 2:117, 134]. Coroner's jury, 5 June 1638, 1 August 1648 on the body of a child of Allis Bishop [ PCR 1:88, 2:132]; committee to survey land, 5 May 1640 [ PCR 1:152]; committee on Kennebec trade, 3 October 1659 [ PCR 3:170-71].
Plymouth constable, 3 March 1639/40, 2 June 1640, 7 March 1642/3 [ PCR 1:141, 155, 2:53]; highway surveyor, 3 March 1639/40, 2 June 1640, 4 June 1645, 1 June 1647, 7 June 1648 [ PCR 1:141, 155, 2:84, 116, 124]; tax collector, 4 June 1650 [ PCR 2:155].
Eastham surveyor of highways, 1 June 1658 [ PCR 3:136].
In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:188].
ESTATE: Assessed 9s. in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [ PCR 1:11, 28].
On 7 November 1636 granted six acres at Plymouth "to belong to their dwelling houses there, & not to be sold from their houses" [ PCR 1:46]. On 5 March 1637/8 granted forty acres "at the north end of Fresh Lake, and a parcel of marsh for meadow lying on the south side of Fresh Lake" [ PCR 1:78]. On 1 June 1640, granted five acres of meadow [ PCR 1:154]. On 2 November 1640 granted five acres at Lakenham [ PCR 1:166].
On 12 January 1639/40 John Barnes of Plymouth sold to Richard Sparrow of the same four two-year-old steers and one three-year-old bull, for ?83 [ PCR 1:138]; Richard Sparrow immediately sold the bull and two of the steers to Josias Winslow of Plymouth, for ?50 [ PCR 1:139]. On 16 September 1641 Richard Sparrow was granted two acres of meadow ground at Wood Island "which was Mris Fullers" [ PCR 2:25]. He was granted a parcel of upland 7 December 1641 [ PCR 2:29]. On 17 October 1642 he was granted four acres of upland at the head of Mr. Hicks's field [ PCR 2:48]
In 1653 (day and month not given) Richard Sparrow of Eastham sold to George Bonum of Plymouth "all that his house and garden plot on which the house standeth being scituate in Plymouth aforesaid in the South Street near the mill together with six acres of upland ... in the new field" [ MD 3:138-39, citing PCLR 2:1:69]. (This same transaction was entered again under date of 22 November 1656 [ MD 10:215, citing PCLR 2:1:183]. On 4 June 1657 "Richard Sparrow of Eastham, planter," sold to Giles Rickard Sr. of Plymouth, weaver, "a parcel of upland meadow in the meadow commonly called Doten's Meadow in the township of Plymouth aforesaid containing five acres" [ MD 11:18, citing PCLR 2:1:191].
On 6 October 1657 Richard Sparrow and others were allowed to claim lands about thirteen English miles from Rehoboth [ PCR 3:123]. On 1 June 1658 he was granted a portion of land between Bridgewater and Weymouth [ PCR 3:142].
On 4 October 1658 Richard Sparrow of Eastham, planter, sold to Abraham Sampson of Duxbury, carpenter, "a parcel of marsh meadow containing three acres and three quarters or thereabouts ... lying on the east side of the great wood island in the township of Marshfield ... whereof two acres of the said three acres and three quarters was at first granted to Joshua Pratt and by him sold to Josias Cooke, and by him sold to Richard Sparrow; and the other acre and three quarters granted to Mistress Bridgett Fuller and exchanged with Richard Sparrow for two acres in Dotie's Meadow"; "the wife of the said Richard Sparrow hath given her consent" [ MD 13:141-42, citing PCLR 2:2:11].
In his will, dated 19 November 1660 and proved 5 March 1660/1, Richard Sparrow bequeathed to "Pandora my loving wife my dwelling house and housing with my garden plot adjacent in the Township of Eastham during her life and then to belong to Jonathan Sparrow my son" (along with some movables); "as for my uplands at Poche and my meadow ground ... the one half I have already given to Jonathan my son and the other half ... I give to John Sparrow my grandchild as his propere inheritance only my wife to have the use of my meadow or as much as she shall need during her life"; "whatsoever land shall befall to me from the country as my right it being purchased I give to John Sparrow my grandchild; "to the church of Eastham one ewe sheep to be disposed of according to the discretion of my overseers"; to "Pressila Sparrow my grandchild one ewe sheep to be improved in a small stock for her, and the rest of my ewe sheep I give to John and Rebecca Sparrow my grandchildren to be improved as a stock for them; to "Jonathan Sparrow my son my great cloth coat, and for the rest of my wearing apparel, my wife to dispose of them as she see cause"; wife Pandora and son Jonathan to be executors; friends and brethren Mr. Thomas Prence of Eastham, Mr. Thomas Willett of Rehoboth and Lieutenant Thomas Southworth of Plymouth to be overseers; residue of estate to be equally divided between wife and son [ MD 12:57-58, citing PCPR 2:2:66].
The inventory of the estate of Richard Sparrow was taken 22 January 1660/1 and totalled ?85, with no real estate included [ MD 12:58, citing PCPR 2:2:67].
BIRTH: By about 1605 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Eastham 8 January 1660/1 [ MD 6:203; see also MD 8:4].
MARRIAGE: By about 1629 Pandora _____ (assuming she was mother of Jonathan); she survived her husband. (According to some sources, in "1665 the widow [Pandora] and son [Jonathan] sold the Eastham home and removed to what is now East Orleans where Pandora probably died" [ Dawes-Gates 2:765, citing CCL 32:3]; this transaction is not recorded in the Plymouth Colony land records.)
CHILD:
i JONATHAN, b. say 1629; m. (1) Eastham 26 October 1654 Rebecca Bangs [ PCR 8:15], daughter of EDWARD BANGS ; m. (2) by 1671 (and probably by 1669) Hannah (Prence) Mayo, daughter of THOMAS PRENCE and widow of Nathaniel Mayo [ MD 14:193-203]; m. (3) Barnstable 23 November 1698 Sarah (Lewis) Cobb, daughter of George Lewis and widow of James Cobb (son of HENRY COBB ) [ MD 14:87; TAG 68:26].


COMMENTS: On 24 June 1639 "Mary Moorecock hath of her own voluntary will, with consent of her father-in-law, Thomas Whitton, put herself apprentice with Richard Sparrow, of Plymouth, and Pandora, his wife," for a term of nine years [ PCR 1:128-29].
On 5 November 1638 "Richard Sparrow, of Plymouth, yeo[man]," was surety for William Burne (i.e., Bourne) of Duxbury [ PCR 1:101]. On 7 December 1641 he was one of eight men who brought various actions against James Luxford, primarily for trespass [ PCR 7:27]. On 2 October 1650 Richard Sparrow was censured for failing to report the theft of corn from his barn and for "concealing of the aforesaid act of Tho. Shereve, upon an engagement so to do unless called before authority" [ PCR 2:162-63]. Sparrow won an action 7 March 1653/4 against Nathaniel Mayo for defamation [ PCR 7:69]. On 5 October 1656 Captain Myles Standish brought suit against Richard Sparrow of Eastham, in behalf of Elizabeth Hopkins, charging that Sparrow had not performed the terms of an agreement concerning Elizabeth [ PCR 7:80]. On 6 October 1657 Richard Sparrow won his suit against Ralph Smith for taking away a piece of timber, though having been forbidden, and refusing to give it back [ PCR 7:84].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: George Ernest Bowman took a special interest in the Sparrow family, and published a number of articles on the immigrant and his son [ MD 11:231-34, 12:57-60, 14:1-5, 193-203].
In 1931 Mary Walton Ferris published a typically thorough study of Richard Sparrow and his son Jonathan [ Dawes-Gates 2:763-68], and in 1960 Donald Lines Jacobus also prepared a briefer account [ Ackley-Bosworth 41-42].

"RICHARD, Plymouth, 1632, rem. to Eastham 1653, brot. from Eng. Jonathan and prob. other ch. was rep. 1655, and 6, and d. 8 Jan. 1660. His will of 19 Nov. preced. names w. Pandora, and s. Jonathan, Excors.; and gr.ch. John, Priscilla., and Rebecca."

Richard married Pandora Abt 1629. [Group Sheet]

1. Jonathan SPARROW was born Abt 1629.