The Ware Genealogy
Charles P. Ware, 1928
The Wares are a very old family and of noble descent. Records are on file in the countries, or shires, of Devon and Somerset, England showing that families of our name have been living there since the dawn ofEnglish history, shortly after the Roman invasion 55 years B.C. And our ancestry can be traced back in a direct line, family by family, to the year 1471 in the tenth year of the reign of King Edward IV, many having seen military service and have honorable mention in the many wars of the British Empire and later on in King Phillip's war, the French and Indian War and in the artillery service in the war of the American Revolution. The first one of our name to emigrate to America was Robert Ware, known as "Robert Ware, of Dedham." He and his wife came to Massachusetts in 1623, and settled on the Ware river in what is now Hampshire County and from all indications he was a very well educated man judging by his handwriting. I have a copy of his signature to a will, made in 1642 and I am herewith attaching a facsimile of his signature as I copied it. He was buried at Dedham, Mass. and there is a long line of ancestry reaching on down from Massachusetts into Virginia and Kentucky, through the 17th and 18th centuries. I, Charles P. Ware, being tenth in line of descent from Robert Ware, of Dedham. My great-grandfather's name was Nathan Ware, and Nathan Ware's son, Col. Dudley Ware, my great-grandfather, was a native of Albemarle County, Virginia and a near neighbor of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. Dudley Ware was highly educated and his wife was of French descent. Their children, Henry, Rice, and Edmond and their two daughters, Mrs. Tubbs and Helen, were all born in Virginia.
In 1797 Col. Dudley Ware, together with his wife, three sons, and daughter Helen in company with other Virginians loaded their possessions on horses and pack-saddle and came in by way of the Old Wilderness Road and Cumberland Gap, seeking new homes for themselves in the "Dark and Bloody Ground" beyond the Alleghenies. Finding the Indians less numerous and troublesome in what now comprises Pulaski County, Kentucky than they were in the Blue Grass regions he decided to make entry on abody of land lying just east of Pulaski Station, on the headwater's of Hyatt's Fork and Pittman Creeks. Where, with the assistance of his sons and some of his far off neighbors, he built himself a home near a fine spring, in what was, at that time, a dense and trackless forest, with people living miles apart and oft times he could hear the war whoop of the stealthy Indians and the howling of prowling wolves and other wild animals. Here, surrounded by the beauties of nature, this fine old Virginian gentleman, together with his brave and faithful wife, spent the sunset of their lives in this, their new earthly home and when at length they came to the end of life's journey, this good man and his noble help mate, who had borne her share of the trials and hardships that were the common lot of the women of the period, were laid to rest in this little cemetery belonging to the old homestead. It is something of a coincidence that this old land grant has always remained in the hands of the Ware family from that far distant to the present day, it having passed by purchase and inheritance down to Mr. Jonas Ware, now 84 years of age, a son of Edmond Ware and grandson of Col. Dudley Ware. ...
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[The above article was copied word for word except for an occasional spell check correction, from a copy of Charles P. Ware's 1928 account of his family history. I have made no attempt to corroborate his account, but I have no reason not to take it as fact until shown otherwise. It was probably accurate to the best of his ability I928. --- David Ware]
