Person:Andrew Ward (1)

"Ward, Andrew. Commissioner appointed by Mass. to govern Conn., Mar. 1636; Assistant, Conn. Col., Apr. 1636, Sept. 1636, Mar. 1637, May 1637; Deputy (Wethersfield) to Conn. Leg., Nov. 1637, Mar. 1638, Apr. 1638, Aug. 1639, Sept. 1639, Jan. 1640; Magistrate (Stamford town), Oct. 1642. Dep. Magistrate, Apr. 1643; Deputy (Stamford) to New Haven Leg., Apr. 1644; Assistant, New Haven Col., Oct. 1646; Deputy (Fairfield) to Conn. Leg., May 1648, May 1649. Sept. 1649, May 1650, Sept. 1650, May 1651, May 1652, May 1653, Sept. 1653, May 1654, Oct. 1654, May 1655, May 1656, Oct. 1656, Oct. 168; war committee for Fairfield, May 1653, Oct. 1654.

The statements in the preface to the Andrew Ward Genealogy with regard to Andrew's being of the family of Richard Ward of Gorleston or Homersfield have been investigated (by Col. Charles E. Banks for Mrs. Finley J. Shepard). No such person as Richard Ward was found; no Gunville family existed in the vicinity as lords of the manor; and every reference given has proved to be fictitious. It is likely that these statements were the invention of a fraudulent genealogist, innocently accepted by members of the Ward family, through whom they found their way into the book.

It is certain that he m. in England, Hester Sherman, who was bapt. 1 Apr. 1606 at Dedham, co. Essex, and we should look for his antecedents in that quarter. The will of Robert Lockwood (the Lockwoods of Fairfield were prob. of this tribe) of Eye, near Yaxley, co. Essex (who m. Margery Sherman), in 1558 named his daus. Mary wife of John Ward and Ann wife of Anthony Barker. David Rawson of St. Gregory's, London, father of Edward (Sec. of Mass. Col.), and son of Edward and Bridget (Ward) Rawson, in his will 1616 named his uncle John Ward, and Andrew Ward (a minor), son of his uncle Ralph. Now Dr. John Ward of Ipswich, Mass., besides mentioning various Sherman cousins in his will 1652, gave £20 each to the two youngest sons of his "Cousin Ward of Wethersfield." Dr. John Ward was son of John Ward (will 1631) of Stratford St. Mary, co. Suffolk, just across the River Stour from Dedham, co. Essex. The mother of Dr. John Ward was Anne, whose will 1635 made Dr. John Clarke of Colchester Executor. This was the Dr. John Clarke who settled later in Newbury, Mass., the same town to which the younger Edward Rawson had come in 1637.

Andrew may have been the son of Ralph, nephew of John of Stratford, and cousins of Dr. John Ward and of Sec. Rawson; but positive proof has not been found (Stephen and Joyce (Traford) Ward had a son Richard of Faxton, co. Northampton, whose will in 1640 named various relatives, including a brother Andrew; but as this Andrew was in England in 1640, he was not the emigrant. However, Richard gave a legacy to Governor Thomas Dudley in New England, and a clue may be found here).

He first settled in Watertown, Mass.; was a founder of Conn. Colony and an original settler at Wethersfield; he was also a founder of Stamford in 1641, having with Robert Coe on behalf of the Wethersfield men arranged with New Haven Colony for the settlement there; and rem. 1647 to Fairfield, where he died in 1659. He m. Hester Sherman, dau. of Edmund, bapt. 1 Apr. 1606, d. in 1666.

Will 8 June 1659; wife Ester; son John, £50, when 21; dau. Sarah, £40; dau. Abigail, £40, when 18; housing and lands to sons Andrew and Samuel, to be divided when the eldest (Andrew) is 21; the rest of his children have had full portions except Edmund, who is to have £20 "if he come to this place." Inv. 18 Oct. 1659; Esther and son William granted adm'n.

Will of Hester, 27 Dec. 1665; son William, £5; dau. Mary Burr, £2; sons Andrew and Samuel, £8 each; dau. Abigail, £10; children of dau. Anna Nichols, £9;gr. child Hester Ward, £9; son John's child, £9; gr. children Sarah and Nathaniel Burr, children of dau. Sarah, £9; clothing to daus. Ann, Mary, Sarah, Abigail; sons William and Andrew, Exec'rs; to Daniel Burr and Hester Burr, 10 shillings each. Inv. 30 Jan. 1665 [1665/6].

It is reasonable to suppose that Edmund was eldest son, named for Hester's father Edmund Sherman, but dead before Hester made her will; yet Elizabeth Barker of Nayland, co. Suffolk (five miles from Stratford, where the Dr. John Ward family lived), in her will 1627 named her gr. child Edmund Ward. Is should be considered as a possibility that Andrew Ward m. (1) a Barker, mother of Edmund; and that Edmund returned to England, not being of "this place" when Andrew made his will; and this theory would explain Hester's will not naming him, even if he was then living."^[3]

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12} Andrew Ward, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   3:1918-21.

   ORIGIN: Unknown. Jacobus suggested searching in the area of Dedham, Essex, since that was the home of Ward's wife [FOOF 1:643-44] Jacobus also noted a clue pointing to a Ward family of Faxton, Northamptonshire [NYGBR 44:119-21].
   CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Membership in Watertown church prior to 14 May 1634 implied by freemanship.
   FREEMAN: 14 May 1634 [MBCR 1:369].

2. ↑ Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:406-407.

   WARD, ANDREW, Watertown, freem. 14 May 1634, rem. to Wethersfield next yr. and with Ludlow, and others, ahd commissn. from Mass. to gov. the people at Conn,. 1635, for one yr. yet in the docum. in our Col. Rec. I. 171, his name, on the repetit. is Warner; was rep. 1636 and 7, rem. to Stamford 1641, and Trumbull, Hist. thinks he was of Hempstead, L. I. 1643, yet in 1653, I find him again rep. no doubt, for Fairfield; but went at last to the Dutch, and is ment. in Bolton's West Chester I. 161, as founder of gr. reput. Yet Goodwin gives no countenance to such a rem. but says he d. at F. 1659, and by w. Esther, wh. d. not, as he says, in 1667, but early in 1665, he suplies him these ch. Edmund, William, Mary, Andrew, Samuel, Abigail, Ann, John, and Sarah, of not one of wh. is the date of b. kn. exc. Andrew's, 1647. Mary m. the sec. John Burr; Ann m. prob. Caleb Nichols; and Sarah m. Nathaniel Burr.

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Andrew Ward, in Jacobus, Donald Lines. History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield. (New Haven, Conn.: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1930-1932)
   1:643-645.
4. ↑ Ward, George Kemp. Andrew Warde and his descendants, 1597-1910: being a compilation of facts relating to one of the oldest New England families and embracing many families of other names, descended from a worthy ancestor even unto the tenth and eleventh generations. (New York: A.T. Delamare Printing and Publishing Company, 1910)
   12-26.