John Sparke (died 1640)

John Sparke (c. 1574 – 1640) of The Friary, in the parish of St Jude, Plymouth, Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.

[2] In the 1580s John Sparke (died 1603) acquired the former Whitefriars Priory in the parish of St Jude, Plymouth (dissolved a few decades before during the dissolution of the monasteries), which he made his residence.

The buildings were converted into a hospital for soldiers in the year 1794, when a deadly sickness was ravaging the troops detained at the port for the West India expedition.

By his wife he had children including: He died on 17 March 1640, aged 66, and was buried in St Andrew's Church[9] where survives his mural monument,[10] with alabaster kneeling statues of himself and his wife, with the arms of Sparke impaling Rashleigh.

It was smoke damaged during World War II bombing, and was restored and repainted in the early 1990s by Plymouth stonemason Mark Robinson.

Arms of Sparke: Chequy or and vert, a bend ermine [ 1 ]
Friary Gate ( alias Sparke's Gate), Exeter Street, Plymouth. Photograph c.1890 showing "Sparke's Gate", an early 18th century rebuild of the dilapidated 13th century entrance to the Whitefriars Abbey, which had been acquired as their residence by the Sparke family after the dissolution of the monasteries