Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sparke, Edward
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SPARKE, EDWARD (d. 1692), divine, a native of Kent, was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, graduating B.A. 1630, M.A. 1633, and B.D. 1640. He was incorporated at Oxford on 12 July 1653 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. i. 178–9). He was presented to the rectory of St. Martin, Ironmonger Lane, London, 28 Sept. 1639, but was ejected from his living and his church sequestered about 1645. In 1650 he was vicar of Isle of Grain, Kent. At the Restoration he regained his rectory, but resigned it before 5 June 1661. He became minister of St. James's, Clerkenwell, resigned it in 1666, and on 23 Jan. 1665–6 was instituted to the vicarage of Tottenham. He was also vicar of Walthamstow, December 1662 to May 1666, and was chaplain to Charles II. He died in 1692. Sparke wrote: ‘Scintillula Altaris, or a Pious Reflection on Primitive Devotion: as to the Feasts and Fasts of the Christian Church orthodoxally Revived’ (London, 1652, 8vo). The second edition, published in 1660, was entitled ‘Θυσιατήριον vel scintilla altaris.’ The book was long held in great esteem, and six editions appeared between 1663 and 1700. The later editions contain an engraved portrait. He also edited Shute's ‘Sarah and Hagar,’ 1649, and, according to Walker, wrote much besides. [Walker's Sufferings of Clergy, ii. 175; Newcourt's Repert. i. 412, 755, ii. 637; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Hasted's Hist. of Kent. ii. 93.]