SPAROWE, Andrew

The identity of the man who represented Downton in the first Parliament of 1449 cannot be established with absolute certainty.1 Wedgwood conflates Sparowe with the earlier Buckinghamshire MP Andrew Sperlyng* (HP Biogs. ed. Wedgwood and Holt, 784), but he was not the first to do so: in 1455 a writ of certiorari sued out by Richard Quatermayns* and relating to an inquiry held by Sperlyng 20 years earlier wrongly named the commr. as Sparowe: E159/231, recorda Easter, rot. 12. While there was a Wiltshire family of this surname, no scion with the comparatively unusual Christian name of Andrew has been discovered.2 CPR, 1429-36, p. 127. In 1434, an Andrew Sparrow was required to take the general oath against maintenance in Oxfordshire,3 CPR, 1429-36, p. 395. while either the same man or a namesake was at some point before 1436 in dispute over a debt of 40s. with a husbandman called William Goky from Taunton, where there were also other Sparowes.4 CFR, xix. 11. In April 1449, while the Parliament was in progress, a London gentleman called Andrew Sparowe settled his moveable possessions on a London draper and a clergyman. It may have been he who owned property in the parishes of Hayes and Bromley in Kent. At his death he left three under-age sons, John, William and Thomas, none of whom survived him to adulthood. His land, which he had asked his widow and executrix to dispose of for the benefit of his soul, became the subject of protracted litigation.5 C1/47/110; 48/321-5.