Immigrated: 1632
Place: from England with his parents
Occupation: Yeoman
Birth of Son: Jonathan Sparrow
Lived in: 01 JAN 1632/33
Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Note: Was a freeman
Estate: Assessed 9s. in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634
Lived in: 07 MAR 1636/67
Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Note: Was a freeman
Land: On 7 November 1636 granted six acres at Plymouth “to belong to their dwelling houses there, & not to be sold from their houses.”
Land: 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.”
Note: On 5 November 1638 “Richard Sparrow, of Plymouth, yeo[man],” was surety for William Burne (i.e., Bourne) of Duxbury
Note: 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.
Purchased: 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. Richard Sparrow immediately sold the bull and two of the steers to Josias Winslow of Plymouth, for £50.
Lived in: 1639
Place: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Note: Was a freeman
Land: On 1 June 1640, granted five acres of meadow.
Land: On 2 November 1640 granted five acres at Lakenham.
Land: On 16 September 1641 Richard Sparrow was granted two acres of meadow ground at Wood Island “which was Mrs Fullers.”
Court: On 7 December 1641 he was one of eight men who brought various actions against James Luxford, primarily for trespass.
Land: He was granted a parcel of upland 7 December 1641.
Land: On 17 October 1642 he was granted four acres of upland at the head of Mr. Hicks’s field.
Note: 1643
Details: In Plymouth section of Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms.
Court: 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”
Land: 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.” (This same transaction was entered again under date of 22 November 1656.)
Moved to: On or before 1653
Place: Eastham, Massachusetts
Court: Sparrow won an action 7 March 1653/4 against Nathaniel Mayo for defamation.
Court: 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.
Land: 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.”
Court: 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.
Land: On 6 October 1657 Richard Sparrow and others were allowed to claim lands about thirteen English miles from Rehoboth.
Land: On 1 June 1658 he was granted a portion of land between Bridgewater and Weymouth
Lived in: 1658
Place: Eastham, Massachusetts
Note: Was a freeman
Land: 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”
Education: 06 OCT 1659
Note: He signed his name to an agreement regarding the Kennebec trade. His inventory included “a Bible [and] 2 small books” valued at 10s.
Offices Held:
- Deputy from Eastham to Plymouth General Court, 6 April 1653, 8 June 1655, 3 June 1656.
- Grand Jury, 4 June 1639, 6 June 1643, 7 June 1653, 7 June 1659
- 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.
- Petit Jury, 1 June 1647, 4 October 1648 of life and death for Allice Bishope.
- Coroner’s Jury, 5 June 1638, 1 August 1648 on the body of a child of Allis Bishop.
- Committee to Survey Land, 5 May 1640
- Committee on Kennebec Trade, 3 October 1659.
- Plymouth Constable, 3 March 1639/40, 2 June 1640, 7 March 1642/3.
- Highway Surveyor, 3 March 1639/40, 2 June 1640, 4 June 1645, 1 June 1647, 7 June 1648.
- Tax Collector, 4 June 1650.
- Eastham Surveyor of Highways, 1 June 1658.
Will: 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
Death: 08 JAN 1660/61 Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Buried: Eastham Cove Burying Ground, Eastham, Barnstable Co, Massachusetts
HERE RESTS THE DUST OF
RICHARD SPARROW AND HIS WIFE PANDORA
WHO CAME FROM KENT COUNTY ENGLAND
ABOUT 1633 AND SETTLED IN PLYMOUTH
ABOUT 1650 THEY CAME TO EASTHAM
AND SETTLED NEAR THIS PLACE
WHERE HE DIED JANUARY 8,1660
HERE ALSO RESTS
JONATHAN SPARROW
ONLY CHILD OF RICHARD
TOGETHER WITH HIS FIRST TWO WIVES
REBECCA BANGS & HANNAH PRINCE
HE SETTLED IN THE PART OF EASTHAM
NOW EAST ORLEANS WHERE
AFTER FILLING MANY OFFICES OF HONOR
AND TRUST IN BOTH CHURCH AND STATE
HE DIED MARCH 21, 1706 AGED 73 YEARS
IN MEMORY OF
THESE EARLY SETTLERS OF OUR COUNTRY
WE THEIR DESCENDENTS HAVE ERECTED
THIS TABLET IN THIS CENTENNIAL YEAR
OF OUR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE A D 1876
Monument Erected in Honor of Richard Sparrow 1660
Pandora Sparrow
Jonathan Sparrow 1706
Rebecca Bangs Sparrow
Hannah Prince Sparrow
Inventory: The inventory of the estate of Richard Sparrow was taken 22 January 1660/1 and totalled £85, with no real estate included.
Parents are unknown
Pandora Bangs
Moved to: 1665
Place: East Orleans, Massachusetts
Buried: on the Sparrow lot in the ancient cemetery, East Haddam, Massachusetts
Parents are unknown – She was possibly daughter of John Bangs and Jane Chavis Bangs, and therefore a sister of Edward Bangs.
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