Richard Sparks, a prominent member of the community of Seventh-day Baptists, or Keithian Baptists (formed during the last decade of the seventeenth century by the followers of disowned Quaker George Keith), removed to Philadelphia, where he prospered and acquired con­siderable property, among which was a lot on the south­east corner of Fifth and High (later Market) Streets.

Late in the year 1715, Sparks became seriously ill, and recognizing that there was no separate place of burial for the city's Seventh-day Baptists, incorporated the following clause in his last will and testament:

"I the said Richard Sparks, have put my hand and seal to this my last will and testament, dated ye 14th day of January, in ye second year of ye reign of our soverign Lord George by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, and in ye year 1715-16 . . . The above Richard Sparks, do hereby give, devise, and bequeath one hundred feet of the back end of my lot on ye south side of ye High Street Philadelphia for a burial place, for ye use of ye people or society called ye Seventh Day Baptists for ever. In which said piece of ground I desire to be buried, my wife having the use of it during her life, and I will that this clause be considered and taken as part of my will."

The will was approved on April 3, 1716. Owing to the death without issue of his widow, Joan (who was also buried in the ground), and the decline of the Seventh-day Baptists within the city, the lot soon became neglected and for a time was without an enclosure, or even a stone to mark the graves of those who, unknown and forgotten, rested beneath the clay.

For many years the history of the ground is obscure. After the death of Joan Sparks the upper end of the origi­nal lot, having a frontage of one hundred and sixty feet on Fifth to Market Street, came into the possession of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. Dr. Cadwalader conveyed the property to John Oldenheimer, butcher, on June 26, 1766. John Oldenheimer sold his lot, on which he had erected a large three-story brick house fronting on Market Street, July 1, 1782, to William Sheaff, a well-known merchant. This fact, coming to the knowledge of some of the Seventh-day Baptists in Chester County, they at once made an attempt to possess themselves of the adjoining ground, but were opposed by their brethren of two New Jersey congregations, at Piscataway and Co­hansey. This dispute culminated about 1786, and was de­cided in favor of the Jersey congregations, the ground for the verdict being the fact that the New Jersey churches were incorporated, while the Chester County congregations bad no corporate existence.

The Seventh-Day baptists of the Cohansey Church in New Jersey continued to use the lot as a place of sepulture for some of their people who died in the city; thus, we find records of the burial of James, John, and Jehu Ayres, and of the wife of Enoch David, one of their most noted preachers of the day. It was used until 1802.

By the 1880s, the burial ground had become hewn in by development and overrun with vines and noxious weeds, and had became a receptacle for refuse thrown from an adjoining market-house. The monuments were removed to Shiloh Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Cumberland County, New Jersey, in 1894.