January 10, 2022

Pages 2788-2789
Whole Number 131

18.4 RUTH SPARKS (born 1756)
DAUGHTER OF 18. JOSIAH & PENELOPE (BROWN) SPARKS
OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND



(Editor's Note: In the June 1958 issue of the Quarterly, Whole No. 22, we published an article about the family of 18. Josiah and Penelope (Brown) Sparks of early Baltimore County, Maryland. This couple had five sons:

18.1 Francis Sparks, born ca. 1750;
18.2 Josiah Sparks, Jr., born ca. 1752;
18.3 Elijah Sparks, born in 1754;
18.5 Thomas Sparks, born on May 23, 1758; and
18.6 Matthew Sparks, born ca. 1760.

All of these sons married and had fairly good-sized families. A detailed account of the family of Matthew was given in the June 1958 issue of the Quarterly. Subsequently, a more detailed account of the family of 18.2 Josiah Sparks, Jr. was published in the June 1970 issue, Whole No. 70. Recently we received information that Josiah and Penelope (Brown) Sparks also had a daughter, 18.4 Ruth Sparks, born in 1756 in Baltimore County. The source of the information is a book entitled Nicholas Hutchins, of My Lady's Manor by Elmore Hutchins of Monkton, Maryland. We are pleased to add this information regarding the descendants of Josiah and Penelope (Brown) Sparks.)

Ruth Sparks, daughter of Josiah and Penelope (Brown) Sparks, was born in 1756 and was the fourth child born to that couple. She married Thomas Anderson, ca. 1776, and they had thirteen children. Thomas Anderson died on December 9, 1801, at the age of fifty. The date of the death of Ruth (Sparks) Anderson has not been learned, but she was living when her husband's estate was settled on September 14, 1819. We have also not learned the order of the births of their children, although we have the dates of birth of seven of them. We have placed the other six children in what we believe to be the logical order of their probable dates of birth.

18.4.1 Elizabeth Anderson may have been the eldest child of Thomas and Ruth (Sparks) Anderson, and, if so, she was born ca. 1777. On March 30, 1799, she married William Slade. He was born July 25, 1775, and was a son of William and Elizabeth (Stansbury) Slade. He died on June 28, 1849. Elizabeth died in December 1859 in Baltimore. They were the parents of nine children. All of the children were buried at St. James Church, Monkton, Maryland.

18.4.1.1 Levi Anderson Slade was born April 9, 1798. He died on October 27, 1879. He married Elizabeth Ann Fuller.
18.4.1.2 Penelope Slade was born April 20, 1800. She died in the fall of 1872.
18.4.1.3 Mary Ann Slade was born January 27, 1802. She died on August 10, 1882.
18.4.1.4 William H. Slade was born in 1807. He died on August 4, 1866. He married Elizabeth Hunter.
18.4.1.5 Emma Eliza Slade was born March 3, 1810. She died on April 18, 1859.
18.4.1.6 Matilda Owings Slade was born July 13, 1812. She died on November 15, 1840. In December 1839 she married William Lewis.
18.4.1.7 Miranda Slade was born August 12, 1814. She died on August 12, 1833.
18.4.1.8 Charles Carroll Slade was born June 3, 1817. He died on December 22, 1843.
18.4.1.9 John Braden Slade was born April 24, 1819. He died on February 24, 1852. He married Sarah Johnson Pearce.

18.4.2 Josias Anderson may have been born ca. 1779. He married Comfort Wiley in 1804. She was a daughter of Greensbury and Rachel (Talbott) Wiley. Josias and Comfort had four children.

18.4.2.1 Rachel Anderson was born in 1805.
18.4.2.2 Sophia Anderson
18.4.2.3 John Wiley Anderson was born in 1809.
18.4.2.4 Thomas W. Anderson.

18.4.3 Aquilla Brown Anderson was born November 18, 1780. He died on June 14, 1856.

18.4.4 Thomas Anderson was born ca. 1782. He died in 1867.

18.4.5 Nancy Anderson was born ca. 1784. She never married.

18.4.6 Penelope Anderson was born on November 1, 1786. She died on July 30,1794, at the age of seven.

18.4.7 Leonard Anderson was born April 4, 1788. He married Rebecca MNU, and they had at least two children.

18.4.7.1 George Lucas Anderson. He went to Indiana.
18.4.7.2 Aquilla Anderson. He also went to Indiana.

18.4.8 Elijah Anderson was born March 19, 1790.

18.4.9 Mary Anderson was born in 1790, according to a History of the Dorsey Family. On August 1, 1809, she married Nicholas Slade Dorsey. He was born in 1782. Mary and Nicholas had at least one child:

18.4.9.1 Eliza Anderson.

18.4.10 John Anderson was born October 28, 1792. He died on September 10, 1854. He married Sarah MNU, ca. 1822. They had seven children.

18.4.10.1 William H. F. Anderson was born January 24, 1823.
18.4.10.2 Cromwell B. Anderson.
18.4.10.3 James McC. Anderson.
18.4.10.4 Lavinia Anderson.
18.4.10.5 Samuel Anderson.
18.4.10.6 John E. Anderson.
18.4.10.7 Frances Marian Anderson.

18.4.11 Ruth Anderson born ca. 1794. She died in 1877. She was married twice. Her first marriage was to Jacob Hutchins, son of Thomas Hutchins. Her second marriage was to James A. McCorkle, principal of St. James Academy, in 1830.

18.4.12 Levi Anderson born ca. 1796.

18.4.13 Sarah Ann ["Sally"] Anderson was born October 15, 1798. She married John Shepperd Curtis, son of William Curtis.

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