Mary Webb Sparks

"The Sparks Genealogy in Connection with the Linage of Harry Smith of

Bedford County, Pa", Harry Smith, 1989, Maryland Archives, Annapolis

Book indicates she remarried Thomas Trickey two years after her husbands death

but had no children by him.

According to The Sparks Quarterly:

"We may speculate that William and Mary had been married about 1670-73."

"In this 1701 deed, William Sparks was identified as "William Sparks, Senr."; as was his custom, he signed by mark as while his wife Mary signed as "M". The witnesses were Edward Goding and Thomas Hawkins."

"We have found no record of the death of Mary Sparks, widow of William. From his will and other records, we know that William and Mary Sparks were the parents of four sons and one daughter."

"We know from a number of sources that the wife of William Sparks had the given name Mary, but we have found no clue by which we can identify her maiden surname. She was living at the time that William Sparks made his will, and he provided for her in a way that was typical at the time."

In his will, William Sparks made his wife Mary an executor of his estate, and also ordained, "that my Loveing wife Mary Sparks Shall have possess and Injoy my now Dwelling plant with all it's appurts during her widowhood but not to protest her son William Sparks but then he Shall have the same Liberty As he has now what is ordered before for George Sparks Excepting that neither the said Wm nor George do molest or disturb their mother dureing her widowhood but if my said wife Mary Sparkes does marry again then to have no more than her thirds of my Said Land and plantation dureing her life and the thirds of my personall Estate but Dureing her widowhood She Shall have the Disposall of all my personall Estate Except as before Excepted and if she does happen to die before she marries then to Dispose of it as she will but if She marrys my personall Estate Except her thirds to be Equally divided among all of my Children."

Mary Wright was the daughter of a prominent Queen Anne's County family; her father was a Church Warden in 1695; her mother's name was Annie Boyer Wright. Her father is listed as Solomon Wright in one source and as John Harris Wright in another source. She may have had a sibling.

Mary and William had 5 children: William, George, Mary, John, and Joseph. They owned a considerable amount of land. Her name was nearly always included as owner with William whenever they bought or sold property. In one deed in which they sold 480 acres in Queen Anne's County to John Hamer, Sr. (for 22,000 pounds of tobacco), her name appeared as "Marah" but her signature was clearly "Mary". In William's will, she was given all of his property as long as she did not re-marry in which case, she was only entitled to a third of it, the rest going to their children.

More about Mary and William's land holdings can be found in the sparksfamilyassn.org paper of March 1971, "Sparks Families in Kent, Talbot and Queen Anne Counties, Maryland."

In familytreemaker.com, it states that Mary did re-marry after William’s death (before Oct. 24, 1711) to Thomas Trickey (b. ca. 1640.)