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John Sparke Amery [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 10, (1878) p. 51.

Provided by Michael Steer

A comprehensive review of the Amery and Sparke families of Ashburton, together with an illustration of the Amery coat of arms can be found at Anne Bligh’s Old Ashburton website. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers..

John Sparke Amery was born in 1812 at Narramore, in the parish of Lustleigh, Devon, and at an early age was brought to reside with his maternal uncle, Mr. P. S. Sparke, a woollen manufacturer at Ashburton. He was educated at the Grammar School of that town, under the Rev. J. White, for many years the master. This school is famous as that at which Dunning, Gilford, and Ireland, Ashburton's three worthies, were educated. On leaving school Mr. Amery immediately entered his uncle's business, to which he succeeded in 1844, on Mr. Sparke's death. In 1838 he married Frances, daughter of the Rev. T. W. Windeatt, of Totnes. In 1846, the woollen trade being very much depressed, he retired from business, and turned his attention to forming, especially to the improvement of lately-enclosed common land at Druid, near Ashburton.