THE HISTORY OF
THE DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM WARD
OF SUDBURY, MASS., 1638-1925
BY
CHARLES MARTYN
Author of
"The life of Artemus Ward,
the first Commander-in-chief
of the American Revolution"
PUBLISHED BY
ARTEMAS WARD
OF THE SEVENTH GENERATION
NEW YORK
1925
Copyright, 1925, by
ARTEMAS WARD
PART ONE
CHAPTER ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................PAGE
I THE SEARCH FOR THE ENGLISH HOME OF "WILLIAM WARD OF SUDBURY"....................................................................................... 3
II THE ENGLAND AND THE NORTH AMERICA OF THE YOUTH OF WILLIAM WARD. HIS EMIGRATION............................................ 5
III THE VOYAGE.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14
IV THE FIRST WEEK IN THE NEW WORLD..................................................................................................................................................... 20
V FOUNDING SUDBURY, MASS....................................................................................................................................................................... 24
VI PIONEER LIFE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS ................................................................................................................................................ 27
VII POLICIES AND SUFFRAGE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS.......................................................................................................................... 35
VIII FOUNDING A SECOND TOWNSHIP.......................................................................................................................................................... 40
IX KING PHILIPS WAR ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
X AFTER KING PHILIP'S WAR TO THE DEATH OF WILLIAM WARD ......................................................................................................... 54
v
The General Artemus Ward School, Shrewsbury, Mass.
The London of the time of William Ward's emigration
The type of ship which carried William Ward and his family across the ocean
The "house-lots" of the founders of Sudbury, Mass., placed upon a modern map of Wayland, Mass.
The contract for the construction of Sudbury's first Meeting-house --William Ward one of the signers
Along the "Old Indian Trail," only a few minutes walk from the site of the house-lot of William Ward, his home from 1638 to 1661
A modern map of the center of Marlborough, Mass., showing the site of the dwelling erected by William ward in 1660
Marlborough's preparations during King Philip's War
Mount Ward, between Marlborough and Sudbury, Mass.
The Pioneer Memorial Pier, on the Boston - New York route through Marlborough, Mass.
The southerly view of the Pioneer Memorial Pier
The William Ward - Elizabeth Ward monument in Spring Hill Cemetery
General Artemus Ward, the first Commander-in-Chief of the American Revolution
The granite marker of the Artemas Ward House, Shrewsbury, Mass., on the Boston - Worcester highway
vii
The Artemas Ward Annex to the Howe Memorial Library, Shrewsbury, Mass.
The General Ward tablet in the main vestibule of the Congregational Church, Shrewsbury, Mass.
The Ward tablet in the wall of the New England Historic Genealogy Society building, Boston
Artemas Ward, a noted lawyer and judge, son of General Artemas Ward
Andrew H. Ward, Compiler of the "Ward Family," published in 1851
Nahum Ward, an early settler of Marietta, O., and one of its largest land operators
James Otis Ward, a prominent ship - owner, founder of the shipping business from which developed the "Ward Line" and the "Cuban Mail S. S. Line"
William Hayes Ward, many years editor of "The Independent" and a distinguished Assyriologist
Artemas Ward, publisher of this Genealogy
Joseph Ward, one of the founders of the State of South Dakota; the founder and first president of Yankton College, Yankton, S. D.
viii
I, ARTEMAS WARD ( Number 2722 of the original genealogy) see in this
fourteenth day of March, 1925, a day of many various Thanksgivings.
I feel sure that everyone included in its pages will be thankful that it has
appeared, and that it delivers into their hands the names and histories of all
the known members of our Ward family.
I thank in memory, Andrew H. Ward, who in 1851 issued the "Ward
Family" and gave me the opportunity to publish this later compilation.
I cheerfully and reverently thank Almighty God that He has spared my life to
fulfill in my seventy-seventh year the ambition which started in my tenth year,
and I thank Him for having so prospered me that I was able to complete the work,
which has been both costly and difficult.
I thank Charles Martyn, compiler and editor of the genealogy, and I congratulate
him on the very successful and wholly satisfactory result of his labors. His
accuracy, fidelity, and industry know no limits, and I believe that he will
secure greater reward than this commendation of mine in the place that this
volume will give him among genealogists.
I thank Philip Leroy Shaw, Mr. Martyn's chief assistant, for his tireless and
unstinting devotion to the work--the long hours he gave to it and his
conscientious struggle for the nearest possible approach to perfection of
genealogical detail. I do not doubt that the ability and energy that he
possesses will carry him forward to important positions.
Finally, to each and all of my active office force I extend my sincere thanks
for any assistance that they may have contributed to the undertaking, the
consummation of which has made me extremely happy.
(Artemas Ward's signature)
The covers of this book enclose the tribal story of an Englishman named
William Ward who established his family here in the first generation of the
settlement of North America. It's pages carry the account of his descendants
down to he present day.
Much of the history of our country is told in the life stories of " William
Ward of Sudbury" and his descendants.
The first several chapters portray the labors and dangers of the pioneers of old
Massachusetts. The biographies of the succeeding genealogical division
supplement their story and disclose various cross sections of the struggle for
independence. They tell also of members of the family participating in the
opening of the great Western country, and in the death struggle of the recent
World War.
The family has shown a healthy growth since the publication of Andrew H. Ward's
"Ward Family" in 1851. That volume recorded 4027 descendants. This new
Genealogy(in 1925) gives a record of 10,746. In 1997 we have just under 23,000
with many lines not followed but one especially long one added. That of the
ancestors of Robert Nelson Ward of New Brunswick back to the mid 1700's. All
totals would be considerably larger if it had been possible to list all
descendants. Some are inevitably missing, for it happens many times that
families move away, leaving only faint traces that are speedily obliterated.
These 10,746 descendants include 396 graduates from 149 universities, colleges,
and normal schools (fifty-six of them from Harvard College and University);
fifty-nine representatives and senators in colony, state, and national
legislatures; twenty-two judges; army and navy officers in every conflict in
which the United States and its predecessor-colonies have been engaged; and a
substantial and creditable showing in practically every other calling comprised
within modern civilization.
Most numerous in its pages are farmer--as befits a family which set its first
American roots in the wild lands of Old Massachusetts and relied upon its crops
and its cattle to make its way in the New World, rather than by trade or in
other manners. The Ward farmer of today cover every part of the continent--
raising sheep in Canada, oranges in Florida, and wheat and corn and cattle in he
Central West, and specializing in various other products in various other
sections.
xi
Next in numerical importance are school teachers (both men and women) and
ministers of the Gospel--facts worthy of a sturdy pride and a good text for
anyone who wishes to reflect upon the part that members of the family have
played in welding the nation's children and youths into the citizenry upon which
rest all the privileges and institutions which we have slowly and painfully
acquired and erected.
Well represented also are the other professions-- doctors and lawyers and
engineers being the most prominent in the order given. The world of business has
given success to number, and every branch of trade and mechanical art has its
exponents. There are writers and architects, salesmen and accountants and
railroad men, singer and nurses, and so in great variety. Prominent among living
members is Charles Artemas Ward (4420d in the original), an admiral of the
Chilean Navy, and at the moment that this volume goes to press a member of the
triumvirate constituting the provisional government of Chile, which has ousted
the reactionary revolutionary junta and is arranging for the return of Chile's
legally elected president, Arturo Alessandri.
The volume should be an inspiration to very descendant. Let him, or her, note
how will the family has borne its share in the development of the continent and
with what diversity it has taken its part in the activities of a great nation,
and then determine to do his or her utmost to "carry on" with equal
strength and honor.
ARTEMAS WARD
xii
This genealogy of the family of William Ward who settled in Sudbury, MA, in
or about the year 1838 records all his known descendants along male lines and
three generations along female lines of marriage into other families.
The first two generations along female lines married into other families are
treated in full. Of the third-- i.e., the grandchildren of Ward daughters--only
the names are given. To have continued the female lines further would not only
have been to step far outside the name "Ward"-- it would also have
duplicated entire sections of the genealogies of other names.
There are errors of course. Also there are omissions. Some of the latter are
unavoidable. Others might have been supplied if publication had been delayed for
a still more through search of records and depositories--but id one were to
postpone the printing of a book of this kind until every available possibility
had been exhausted, the book would never appear.
I have avoided the conventional method of padding the first pages with
undigested, and largely indigestible, material in the form of verbatim wills and
other documents, disconnected extracts from public and private record, etc.
Instead, I have told in narrative form the life of William Ward and his family
in the New Word, maintaining equal accuracy and embodying much more information.
I have not appended to each individual his or her ancestry by generations, as
frequently in modern genealogies. Both ancestry and descendant can so readily be
traced that neither the extra space entailed or the monotony of persistent
reiteration seemed to be justified.
Nor have I wasted space in comment on, or the discussion of, debatable points of
minor importance, such prolixity being of more interest to genealogists than of
value to descendants.
On the other hand, for the sake of clearness, many additional pages have been
consumed by practically avoiding abbreviations and by the free repetition of the
names of birthplaces, etc., instead of attempting to evade such repetition.
xiii
Except only the grandchildren of female wards, I have given each descendant a
serial number instead of numbering only those who are continued to separate
headings. This aids identification and the noting of relationship, and also has
the advantage of showing the holder's approximate position among the descendants
of William Ward of Sudbury.
The aim has been to ;make a volume that will be at once accurate as a
genealogical record and of interesting and comfortable reading as family
history.
Prior to this final compilation, work had several times been started on the
genealogical portion of the volume. Credit is due for additions made at those
earlier dates by the late Paul Theodore Bliss Ward (Number 3077 of the original
Genealogy), The Reverend George K. Ward (a genealogist but not a descendant of
William Ward of Sudbury), and the late William H. Blanchard of Montpelier, Vt.
During the last several months of editorial preparation I have been ably
assisted by Mr. Philip Leroy Shaw.
The task of abstracting the Wards and their immediate connections from the
printed Massachusetts vital record was performed by Paul Theodore Bliss Ward. He
added also the story of Elizabeth, the eighth (known) child of William Ward, of
whom no record, save her birth date, appeared in the "Ward Family,"
1851.
The production of the work has been an undertaking of considerable magnitude,
yet it is only ;one of numerous related enterprises carried through by its
publisher, Mr. Artemas Ward of the Seventh Generation.
Prior to him, nothing had been done in memory of Ward ancestors excepting the
mentioned publication of the "Ward Family" in 1851 and the erection of
a family monument in the Shrewsbury Cemetery.
The burial-stone of Elizabeth, the first Ward mother in the New world, lay for
generations forgotten and neglected in a disused, uncared-for cemetery of
Marlborough, Mass. The name of her most distinguished descendant, General
Artemas Ward--despite the high tribute paid to him by John Adams as a man
"universally esteemed, beloved and confided in by his army and their
Country"-- was permitted to slip almost into oblivion without any attempt
to give him the place rightfully his due. Other landmarks and heirlooms, and
other descendants of worth and prominence, were unknown to a majority of the
family as of kin to them.
From his boyhood onward Mr. Ward had felt a strong impulse to
xiv
rectify these conditions, and an earnest desire that the family should
"find itself"--that the honors and distinctions earned by its members
should be the common possession of all instead of being known to only a few.
The dreams of youth are not readily attained. As Mr. Ward mounted toward success
and distinction n the business world he found a multitude of claims upon his
attention repeatedly frustrating attempts to make his dreams become realities,
Time always pressed and the right kind of assistance was not always available.
Up to this point the story is a common one, many times repeated-- plans long
envisioned and long hoped for, too often to be finally pushed aside and dropped,
immersed by conflicting circumstances.
This story differs in the fact that Mr. Ward never relinquished his dream. In
1918 came the first substantial result--the erection of the General Ward
Memorial Entrance to the Shrewsbury Cemetery. Next followed, in 1921, the
publication of "The Life of Artemas Ward, the first Commander-in-Chief of
the American Revolution," a volume which represented a labor of five full
years, during all of which period the heavy expenses of research were borne by
Mr. Ward. The reception accorded the volume by reviewers, historians, and
teachers justified his long-held belief in the greater recognition due General
Ward. The work has found its way into every library of importance, and every
university and college throughout the United States.
Succeeding these two steps came many others.
He bound into five large morocco-covered volumes the manuscripts on the time of
General Ward and his father, Colonel Nahum Ward, that had come down with the
Artemas Ward House, and presented them to the Massachusetts Historical Society,
Boston, to be cared for in perpetuity in its fireproof vaults and alcoves and to
he held in trust as a valuable original-source for students and historians.
In the preparation of these big volumes, 19.5 by 13 inches in height and width,
each of the more than 1000 manuscripts was covered on both sides with invisible
gauze for its preservation.
Also in Boston, he placed portraits of General Ward in the Old and New State
Houses and a memorial tablet in the home of the New England Historic
Genealogical Society.
In Marlborough he built the Pioneer Memorial Pier at the entrance to Spring Hill
Cemetery; embedded Elizabeth Ward's headstone in a granite monument; and set all
the other Ward gravestones in that cemetery in separate concrete slabs. In
addition, he placed a new fence around the cemetery. As
xv
recent Marlborough administrations also have displayed a laudable interest in
the upkeep of the town's early burial-grounds and have made regular
appropriations for their care, Old Spring Hill is now one of the most attractive
of ancient Massachusetts cemeteries--a strong contrast to the weed and bramble
overrun disgrace of a few years ago.
In Shrewsbury Mr. Ward has kept the Artemas Ward House in repair and has
maintained it as a place of historical interest accessible to visitors, with a
bold marker commanding the highway to Boston; and in January of 1924 he
presented to the town the Artemas Ward Annex, a handsome stone and brick
addition to the Howe Memorial Library, dedicating it to the memory of the
General. The annex contains a Children's Room, a History Room, and a modern
stack-room capable of housing from twenty to thirty thousand books. Further, he
has set a tablet to Artemas Ward in the Shrewsbury Congregational Church -- the
General had been one of the residents to help raise its frame when it was
erected, a "new meeting-house," in 1766. And in the courthouse of
Worcester, Mass., he has placed a third portrait of the General.
The Marlborough memorial pier and monument, the Artemas Ward Annex, the
Shrewsbury Church tablet, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society
tablet, are illustrated in this volume. The Memorial Entrance to the Shrewsbury
Cemetery and the Artemas House are depicted in "The Life of (General)
Artemas Ward."
The accumulative result of these projects has been very marked. They have gone
far towards establishing for the Ward family the recognition to which it is
entitled for the contributions its members have made to the upbuilding of the
country. Recent references to General Ward have shown him the considerations
that was formally lacking. His home town of Shrewsbury has given the title of
"The General Artemas Ward School" to one of her largest public
schools. And Marlborough has bestowed the name of "The Artemas Ward
Playground" on the twenty-acre recreation center she is building.
Conjoined with these special plans of Mr. Ward was for a number of years the
collection of Americana, printed and manuscript, specializing in Eastern
Massachusetts and the early days of the Revolution. The books and pamphlets thus
acquired, more than 1500 titles, he recently presented to the Shrewsbury
library.
He is a Tercentenary member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society;
Life member of the Bostonian Society; Life member of the Society for the
Preservation of New England Antiquities; Life member of xvi
the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society; Life member f the New
England Society of New York; and a member for many years of the City Club,
Aldine Association, and Church Club, New York City. He was one of the founders
of the Sphinx Club, New York City.
Much, or all, of the foregoing and of the biographical material given in his
numerical position in this volume is of common or readily ascertainable
information concerning Mr. Ward. The full measure of his personality can be
appreciated only by those who have been in long contact with him in his daily
life and activities. Such has been my privilege. The compilation of this volume;
the preparation of "The Life of (General) Artemas Ward"; and the
execution of other Ward projects, have necessitated close association for a
number of years and under all conditions--in days of success-crowned research
and in periods of unprofitable investigation; in fair weather and foul; in good
health and poor; in times of general prosperity and in periods when the county's
industries slackened. Through all such circumstances Mr. Ward maintained the
buoyant enthusiasm that is characteristic of him, the same unswerving adherence
to his plans, and the same kindly courtesy for all those engaged upon them.
That the bulk of the work on the Genealogy had been done and the matter was
passing to the printer's hands, Mr. Ward fell dangerously ill. The doctors
attributed his breakdown in part to his too close application to the preparation
of the book, yet so strong was his interest in it that even on his sick-bed he
kept constantly in touch with its production. Also while thus confined, he
consummated a plan long held in mind by which the Artemas Ward House will become
a public museum of colonial and revolutionary life and a permanent memorial to
the General.
Such is the man who is responsible for the production of this Genealogy and for
all the other Ward projects of this generation. Every descendant, and
particularly every owner of a copy of this work, will be interested in this
brief story and description. For further concerning him ( he was Number 2722,
page 362 in the original).
CHARLES MARTYN
xvii
THE EMIGRATION OF WILLIAM WARD
AND HIS FAMILY AND THAT OF HIS
FAMILY IN THE NEW WORLD
The search for the English Home of " William Ward of Sudbury"
William Ward "of Sudbury", head of the line to which this book is
dedicated, was born in England about 1603. He emigrated, probably in the spring
of 1638, to the new Colony of Massachusetts Bay in New England, bringing with
him his second wife and five children.
In the earliest records his name is written both "Ward" and "Warde"--at
first, commonly with the final "e". Later, it appears consistently
without the "e". In its original use, the name--with either spelling,
or as "Weard," etc.--signified a guard, military or civil.
From what part of England did he come? Who were his ancestors? These questions
must go unanswered as in the case of many another of the country's founders.
Determined efforts have been made to obtain the information. A few years ago I
visited England and directed inquiries to every parish possessing a register
that goes back to 1638. I followed clues in person and by correspondence in
three hundred and eighty-nine parishes- - thirty-nine of England's forty
counties being represented. But to no avail!
Some of the clues were entirely without merit and were speedily discarded. They
included entries of the names Deane, Elward, Everard, Harte, Warren, and Waite,
the old style writing having been misread and reported as "Ward" or
"Warde."
The true Ward entries embrace the baptisms of several infants of the mane of
William(or Gulielmus) Ward of Warde of about the right date, but it was not
found possible to identify any one of them with "William Ward of
Sudbury". Most of them were eliminated by finding their deaths recorded in
England, or residence there after our William Ward had emigrated to America, or
children of the wrong names, etc.
Three of them remain enigmas. There was disclosed no information to tell their
fate: how long or where they lived, or when or where they died; whether they
remained in the parishes of their birth, or moved to other parishes, or
emigrated. These three frequently recur to my imagination. Was one of them
William Ward of Sudbury? If so, which one?
3
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
Perhaps not any one of the three. The true entries of William Ward himself,
his wives, and his children, may be patiently awaiting discovery in the register
of a parish whose incumbent did not heed my circular appeal to consult his
records, or who (quite pardonably) was unable to recognize the entries in the
weird penmanship puzzles which the pages of may of the old registers present to
the uninitiated.
It is possible that they are not in any register. English parish records are
very far from complete. Some of those early pastors were so lazy or so careless
or so obstinately defiant of civil decrees that they entirely omitted the
required entries of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, leaving the pages blank for
years at a stretch.
And, if made, the entries may have been in one of the numerous registers which
have been lost or destroyed.
The "bishops' transcripts" of the records are similarly incomplete.
The search was continued through a long list of wills in Somerset House, London,
and elsewhere, and many documents in the Public Record Office on the British
Museum.
There remains, of course, a great deal of material in the two latter, and
various other, depositories that time did not permit me to inspect, and it is
one of my dreams that some day I may be permitted to delve deeper.
There were several finds that would have satisfied, have even rejoiced, an
easy-going family historian or the uncritical genealogist so much in evidence a
few years ago. It would have been the most facile thing in the world to have
adopted one of the three possible William Wards f the parish registers and thus
have established the much desired " English connection."
It would not even have been necessary to have ransacked either the registers or
the transcripts, nor to have scanned innumerable wills. There was at hand in the
published "Visitations" a William Warde who fitted all the
"certainties" and "possibilities" of Andre H. Ward's
introduction to his "Ward Family," 1851. There was, it is true, no
confirmation--but neither was there any contradiction--and the connection
carried a fully authenticated coat-of-arms!
All these "possibilities" have been set aside. This volume makes no
claims or assertions concerning the English ancestry of "William Ward of
Sudbury." All that we know concerning his English life is contained within
the first paragraph of this chapter.
4
The England and the North America of the Youth of William Ward.
His Emigration
The England which gave birth to William ward was a notion developing into an
empire, a nation which had drunk of the pride of world place and achieved a new
measure of prosperity, A nation also in which unrest was being Fired by many
ferments, economic, political, and religious.
It was a strange England which travailed--not easily recognized today.
The sixteenth century had seen marked manufacturing and commercial growth, but
it was still essentially an agricultural country, with half its grain grown in
open lands of common cultivation, dotted with manor-houses (imposing and
otherwise), and village groups of the dwellings f small farmers (or yeomen),
artisans, and laborers. It was distinguished in parts by great flocks of sheep
which had encroached upon its arable land. The dense forests of earlier
generations had disappeared, leaving only a moderate, an insufficient, acreage
of woodland.
The population was less than four million. London was the only city of size. No
other had grown beyond the status of a country town.
The standard of education was high among a select few but low among the people
in general. Customs and manners were coarse; conversation, and plays, and books
practiced bread freedom. The fastidious cleanliness of later generations was
unknown. Except among the stricter Puritans, drunkenness was a national custom,
and immorality but a peccadillo. Superstition saturated all classes and there
was a general belief in and fear of witches and witchcraft.
And ever in the background the gallows reaped its early toll of victims. In
these days in England (as elsewhere in Europe) the government and judiciary
recklessly wasted the human resources of the nation, blotting out the lives of
its citizens for almost any crime. The prohibited catching of a wild rabbit was
ample cause for a man to be hanged.
5
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
Withal, a people hardy and enterprising. And during the recent decades of
Elizabeth--a mighty queen, poor in health but strong of brain and will--English
"sea-dogs," backed by English "Merchant Adventurers," had
been, as never before, exploring and trading and fighting upon and across the
seas and oceans, seeking new routes, new sources, and new outlets, elbowing
their way toward maritime dominion. Englishmen had bound their way everywhere on
the water that gain and fighting beckoned. Nor were they the less successful
because of the many occasions on which there was little to distinguish the acts
of English armed merchantmen, or of vessels of the royal navy, from those of
out-and-buccaneers.
Thus we enter the seventeenth century and the birthday of William Ward.
One hundred and eleven years have passed since the discovery of the New World,
and Spanish (and Portuguese) colonization has progressed so far that there is a
well attended university in Mexico City, and other universities and colleges in
South America, yet the treat territory comprised within the twentieth-century
United States and Canada stretched its broad expanse all but untouched by the
white man. For a hundred years English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese have
fished and summered in the Newfoundland waters, and for more than half that
period occasional Frenchmen have hunted and traded along the Saint Lawrence, but
no settlers disputed the Indians' possession save Spain's meager handful in
Florida and her few colonists in New Mexico.
The vast spaces have vainly invited. The mirage of miracles having
faded--disclosing neither the road to Asia, nor gold, nor eternal life--the
Spanish and Portuguese openers of the New World continued to direct their main
energies southward, England and France had not yet embarked upon their careers
as colonizers, nor their duel for New world empire.
Anther turn of the wheel is due. William Ward's childhood sees the prologue of
the conquest of the continent. France establishes a little settlement at the
mouth of the Annapolis River, Nova Scotia--and another at Quebec-- and, despite
vicissitudes, they live. England plants a colony in Virginia, also to be
buffeted by tribulations, but also it lives. England and France have joined
Spain in taking root in the North-American continent.
Religious ferment, furthermore, is working to fruition in England. In 1603 the
large Puritan element in the church--also the Roman Catholics-- had
6
WILLIAM WARDS YOUTH. HIS EMIGRATION
awaited the concessions they expected from the ascension of Presbyterian
king, James the sixth of Scotland and the first of England, only to be hugely
disappointed.
This disappointment stimulated a movement of prime importance in the world's
history.
While Ward was still a youth he heard the story of the Pilgrims' venture and
their struggle to maintain their foothold in the "New England"--their
heroic fight against hunger and disease, their fearful losses; and, later their
final victory as a pioneer religious community fairly established.
These happenings stimulated the imagination of many Englishmen--and
Englishwomen. Of influence too was a slack in the woolen and shipbuilding and
other callings. There was not, and never has been, a large margin of comfortable
condition for the bulk of the population of England, and the pinch of any
depression quickly radiates through the ranks.
So it came to pass that year by year more thousands turned to the thought of a
new life across the Atlantic where opportunity night be greater, and presently
in increasing numbers they were migrating overseas" some to Virginia,
others to the West Indies, particularly to Barbadoes.
By this time Ward was a young married man with little John and Joanna in his
home.
Then came the conception of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Joanna was still
within her second year and John, the firstborn, only four, when a Puritan fleet
of seventeen ships carried over more than a thousand souls within the single
span of 1630.
King Charles the First meantime had succeeded to the throne. He elected to
follow his father's policies and was to travel still further the dangerous path
of absolutism. A good man in many ways, but with the wrong viewpoint for the
England of his reign and lacking the strength to cope with the conditions which
beset him. He, as had his father, lacked also Queen Elizabeth's personal
patriotism, her intense nationalism, and her ability to focus in herself her
people's pride of growth and achievement.
The year 1628 had seen the last English parliament which was to meet for eleven
years. There followed the times in which the King, abetted by his Star Chamber,
trod heavily on English pride and sensibilities and essayed the hazardous
practice of helping himself to funds by forced leans, compulsory knighthood's at
high prices, monopolies of (next page)
7
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
great variety, * and diverse other devices. When the antiquated Ship Money
levy was stretched to the breaking point. When the country rolled uneasily in
the suspicion that the King's party, including the prelates, was piloting it
back into the Roman church. When Laud as Archbishop earned the hatred of the
Puritans which was in a later year to cost him his head.
One or another, or all of these causes affected many men of varied fortunes. The
tide of emigration rose. Taverns and other public places witnessed numerous
sales by auction, and much bargaining of miscellaneous farm and household
goods--country gentlemen and their yeoman constituents raising money for the
voyage and for their settlement overseas, and disposing of such of their
belongings as they could not take with the. Laborers who could not hope to pay
for their passage obtained it by hiring themselves out to work abroad for those
who could.
Various arts of the New World were now open to emigrants, but to Ward (as to
many others) "New England" seemed the most desirable, for there most
nearly could one hope to duplicate the old English village life. There also
could every man immediately become an independent landowner--a strong appeal in
all ages and especially potent in parts where English village life had been
restricted in opportunity, and sometimes wiped out, by the seizure and enclosure
of thousands of acres of common land by unscrupulous overlords. And of New
England, the Massachusetts Bay project was the largest and most
promising--particularly attractive furthermore to those of strict Puritan faith,
for its leaders had seized the opportunity to establish in the New World a
miniature commonwealth molded on Puritan tenets and convictions.
Not that clear-headed men still expected to find an El Dorado across the
northern seas. The first New England emigrants had been buoyed with roseate
hopes, but those who planned to follow needed, instead, high courage and
resolution. There were no longer visions of a land of " milk and
honey." The tales sent home in writing , or brought back in person, had
proved that the new domain was not for dreamers or idlers. Many had gone
unprepared for the
* The privy council registers show that several members of the Ward tribe got
into trouble for disregard for these royal edicts in "restraint of
trade."
On October 22, 1634, A. Warde was arrested for "divers misdeamanors and
contempts, against his mats proclamation" concerning tobacco and for "
abusing his Mats patentee for retayling of tobacco within ye towne of Oswestri
in ye county of Sallopp."
Again on December 16, of the following year, Thomas Ward was up before
Archbishop Laud and other members of the Privy Council in Star Chamber session,
having been arrested "for going up and down the country with a Lyon."
A monopoly of that particular branch of the show business had been "graunted"
to a Mr. Gill, and he was the complainant whose protest resulted in the warrant.
(Spelling from the original)
8
WILLIAM WARDS YOUTH. HIS EMIGRATION
difficulties to be encountered, and "missing of their expectations,
returned home and railed against the Country". Numbers had gone with the
mistaken idea that the colony would afford immediate support, and provisions
were frequently "deare and scant."
Various things had grown in the telling. The rattlesnake was depicted as a
flying creature that could kill a man with its breath!
Yet each year saw a number of "Mayflowers" beating their way across
the ocean, each with its complement of English families courageously seeking
homes on the outer rim of the great unknown continent of North America.
The quotations above are from Wood's "New England's Prospect," a work
which must have an impelling interest for every descendant of William Ward of
Sudbury, for it is not to be doubted that he and his family devoured its every
line. The first edition appeared in 1634, with succeeding issues in 1635 and
1637, so great was the demand. One can picture the absorption with which its
pages were read--the most concise and complete contemporary account of that part
of the New World: setting forth its attractions and disadvantage; telling of its
climate, of the products of its soil, of its beasts, birds, and fishes, of the
several "plantations" already established; telling what clothing
should be included in an emigrant's equipment, what supplies he should take with
him. Concluding with a second part devoted to the most fascinating topic of
all--the Indians, their appearance and habits, and their women, etc. That the
Indians in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay had, a few years earlier, been
greatly reduced by pestilence did not dissipate their fearsome glamour, but
rather added to it the threat of a new strange plague that might at any time
strike again.
Copies of the first edition of Wood's "New England Prospect" bring
high prices today. One was sold at a recent Mew York auction for $2800, Anything
below a thousand dollars is a bargain.
It is an inspiring thought that a book which William Ward purchased for a
shilling or two should now be worth $2800. It is will within possibility that
the copy which brought that price was the very one which he read and discussed
with his family.
The continued exodus to Massachusetts Bay excited apprehension. The government
felt that the conditions were different from those of other English colonies.
Plymouth Colony with its meager population and scant resources had
9
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
been regarded with complaisance even when it had failed to develop into a
financially profitable enterprise for its underwriters. The settlements on the
West Indies greatly increased English trade and London incomes. Those in
Virginia also spelled large profits from the tobacco trade, and in addition
served as a welcome vent for those "undesirables" whom the
"Customer of London" described in memorial to the Privy Council as
"better out than within the Kingdom." But another story was this
recent persistent emigration to New England, this "disorderly passing out
of the Kingdom," of thousands of British subjects, carrying with them much
wealth in cattle, provisions, and other stores, to a part of the world whose
estimated future commerce with the mother country was very small compared with
the immediate drain upon her.
Political exigencies had favored the first Puritan exodus, but its revival in
1633 and its continuance in the years following were very differently regarded.
The King and his Privy Council distrusted the new transatlantic commonwealth and
the expiring "Council for New England" aided the plan to disrupt the
charter of its foundation. The Privy Council attempted to apply the brakes and
declared that none henceforth were to leave without licenses. The requirements
included oaths of allegiance and affidavits that emigrants were not
"subsidy men"--i.e., subjects whose lands or goods had been levied on
to make up a "subsidy," or tax--and searchers were appointed to
prevent unlicensed emigration. But the government was too troubled to be
efficient and the empire continued to leak much of its issue for the upbuilding
of a future rival.
How long Ward planned his emigration with his family. I know not. Certain it is
that many days and still more numerous evenings were spent in absorbing
cogitations. Finally came the decision that they too would stake out a home in
the New World....Then followed the plans and discussions of ways and means....
His family was larger now by the births of Obadiah, Richard, and Deborah. His
first wife had died and he had taken a new partner--Elizabeth, whose tombstone
may still be seen in the old Spring Hill Cemetery of Marlborough, Mass.
It was resolved that they should make the voyage in the spring of 1638. That is
at least an excellent guess, both because of the number who did go then and
because of Ward's first appearance in Sudbury as a fellow settler with some of
them. Then in the spring the journey to London by stage-coach...
London may not have been entirely new to William Ward, but it
10
WILLIAM WARDS YOUTH. HIS EMIGRATION
probably was for his family. It was a rambling sort of city, almost entirely
of wooden building, hugging the shores of the Thames--the river its main
highway, busy both with ships to and from all parts of the world and with boats
of local traffic--the boats doing most of the work for which taxis and other
automobiles, motor-buses and tricks, ply today.
A most picturesque city! The people who sat in the boats, and those who passed
along the irregular streets ashore, would seem startlingly theatric to modern
eyes. All classes in England, particularly in London, had been seized "with
a age for apparel," and one saw not only women most gaudily attired, but
also men gong about their daily tasks in satins and silks, with added doublets
and great ruffs around their necks, with colored feathers in their hats and gold
embroidery on their variously colored shoes, with hair curled and perfumed and
perhaps ornamented with a rose or a piece of jewelry! Much of this finery was
soiled and often it was confined to only one or two such touches--and on a
costume most incongruous--but, except the most degraded, few there were who
escaped entirely the infection of this fever for self adornment. Think not
however that there was necessarily anything weak or effeminate about the man who
curled and perfumed his hair and carried a rose in it! Those were days in which
men held life cheaply and were ready to take or surrender it at any moment on
slight provocation. Every man, unless he were very poor indeed, carried a sword
or a dagger, and if he had neither, he probably carried, or had handy, a heavy
stick or club as a weapon of both offense and defense.
This "rage for apparel" had bred a new flock of storekeepers. One
writer complainingly notes that "Forty years ago there were not twelve
haberdashers in London who sold fancy caps, glassed, swords, daggers, girdles;
and now from the Tower to West Minster Abbey, every street is full of
them."
The other extreme of the picture was furnished by the very wretched poor, who
lived and died homeless, sick, and uncared for in the streets.
There was, indeed, much to be seen in London, but for William Ward and his
family there was nothing that compared in interest with the eight vessels at
their moorings awaiting the day on which their masters should set sail for
America.
What style and size of craft were they that thus engaged attention? Instead of a
huge modern steamship, picture a little vessel of about 200 tons--100 feet or so
in extreme length "from taffrail to knighthead"; 24 foot beam
11
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
or thereabout; three-masted; short and low in the waist, and high in bow and
stern--somewhat "blocky" in general effect. The very smallest
transatlantic passenger vessel sailing from New York today has thirty times her
tonnage, and the largest would make 250 to 300 of her!
She will travel slowly when she has taken on her heavy load of humans, cattle,
and freight, but she has smart under-water lines which give fair speed under
more favorable conditions.
Several cannons of good size are on the main deck; lighter hums on the poop; and
a long-range large-caliber hum on the forecastle. For in those days no ship went
to sea unarmed.
When full spread, her canvas wings display a small sprit-sail, square sails on
the fore and main masts, and a lateen sail on the mizzen-mast.
Above all flies England's flag--the red cross of St. George.
The passengers for these eight ships came by single families, by twos and
threes, and larger parties, from various counties, north and south. Many brought
with them rumors which added to the general excitement. Would the ships be
allowed to sail? Most of those going had sold all their belongings, often at
high sacrifices, to finance their emigration. Many, after paying for their
passage, had invested a considerable part of what money remained in grain and
other provisions, bought in a high market, for their maintenance while
establishing themselves in New England. Few had the special emigration licenses
which the King's Council required. Suppose they should be turned back? Suppose
that even more drastic punishment should be meted out?
There was a superabundance of time in which to worry over these possibilities,
for in 1638 one did not cross the Atlantic on a modern steamship-company
schedule. There were may and long delays in getting started. The outfitting was
unconscionably slow. and when that was finally completed one might wait for many
days for favorable winds. It was not uncommon for passengers to live on board a
vessel for weeks before it sailed.
Nor were the suspicions and fears unwarranted. The apprehension aroused by the
Puritan emigration had grown to real alarm in high places. Among the complaints
to Laud was Maynard's, March 17, averring that such numbers of persons of good
abilities had sold their lands and were departing, that divers parishes were in
danger of being impoverished, and that the emigrants were taking with them so
much grain that there would be hardly
12
WILLIAM WARDS YOUTH. HIS EMIGRATION
enough left in the country to serve till harvest. And straightway from the
Council issued and order to the Lord Treasurer to detain every ship gong to New
England, and to put all passengers and their goods ashore. Instructions also
were issued to sheriffs and other officials to seek out and hold all provisions
stored with intent to ship them to America.
Picture the consternation on the seeing of the Lord Treasurer's order. Their
plans apparently destroyed. Compelled to quit the ship of their long-planned
migration, and set ashore with the effects which represented so much sacrifice,
labor, and expense. Their old homes broken up and their new home denied them.
Fortunately it was not only the emigrants who were affected. Merchants and
shipowners found these emigrant voyages very profitable, the ships on their
return being laden with fish from Newfoundland. The order in consequence aroused
so many influential protests that the Council bowed to the storm and revoked it,
setting the ships "at libertie to proced on in their intended voyage."
In so doing King Charles could not refrain from slapping at those of his
subjects who had chosen a home in New England rather than remain within the
closer range of his benevolence, by referring to "the factious disposition
of the people (or a great qte of them) in that plantation and how unfit and
unworthy they are of any support or of contenance."
With so changeable a government, one could not tell what new proclamation the
next messenger night bring. It was with joy and relief that the emigrants saw
the anchors raised and the ships proceed one by one down the Thames and tack
slowly around the North Foreland on the first leg of their voyage to the New
World.
We do not know whither or not William Ward and his family were on board one of
the ships, but is very probable that they were.
13
The Voyage
The emigrant ships sailed slowly seaward. Round into the Downs and through
the Straits of Dover into the Channel, where contrary winds and heavy seas were
wont to levy long delays and deal out the full woes and miseries of seasickness.
On past Portsmouth to drop anchor at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, a favorite
rendezvous for vessels bound to and from the Indies and many other parts of the
world-- traders, fishing-boats, and men-of-war.
Here the captains filled their water-casks and took on additional wood and a
supply of fresh fish, the emigrants meantime enjoying themselves ashore--for
most of them, the last time they were to walk on English soil. In turn was much
visiting, some very formal, between shore and ship, and between the ships
themselves. Advantage was also taken of the opportunity to test the passengers
at musket practice, for the sea was full of enemies, and the Turkish pirate a
continual anxiety. There was a gun and a sword for every man aboard. The number
of emigrant sail would spell safety at the start, but when separated by the
variability of wind or ship, it might fare ill with any bark which found herself
outsized by a Turk.
Even more to be feared than a real Turk was an encounter with one of the
numerous English and French pirates flying the Turkish flag--or any other that
suited their purpose.
Then out of Yarmouth, sailing W. by S. and W. by N. until the horizon began to
immerse the Scilly Islands. As each ship witnessed the blending of land and sky,
the emigrants pressing together on its poop for a last view of the Old World
knew this for a fateful moment! They were full abreast the Atlantic, and, even
though but started, thus measurably on their way to New England.
Now for weeks, perhaps months--for fifty days was a quick passage--the vessel
under their feet will confine their while world, severing them from the
hemisphere of their forefathers and filling its sails with their lives, their
hoped, and their fears.
I repeat that it is only a supposition that William Ward and his family
14
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND
were aboard one of the ships of the little fleet whose sailing I have
chronicled, but this I will vouch-- that these pages, both in what they have
already told and in what follows, present a veracious picture of an emigrant
voyage of the time. Every member of the family may accept it, and ponder and
ream over it, as depicting the transatlantic coming of his or her first American
ancestor.
It was a terribly crowded little ship for such a long voyage. Aboard were close
upon a hundred and fifty souls, including the crew ( who perhaps numbered
thirty), and a great quantity of miscellaneous freight.
The captain, the most distinguished passengers, and some of the women and
children were berthed in the cabins on each side of the big Common Cabin, or
saloon, under the poop-deck; the others in cabins and (single men) in hammocks
and open bunks between decks, The crew bunked in the forecastle.
The cattle, and goats and poultry, were housed in pens on the forward deck.
The ship's and passenger' stores of while grains, meal, salt meats, peas, and
other provisions were stowed in the hold. Much bulky fodder, too, for the
cattle, And tools, farming implements, and household and personal effects,
overflowed from the hold and filled every available square foot between decks.
On fair days, meals were enjoyed on the main and poop decks; otherwise at
bench-tables in the Common Cabin and between decks.
But picture not a bugle nor a gong, and the passengers trooping down to a hot
meal already prepared, The ship provided sufficient food (deputed passengers
distributing it to families or groups) but she furnished her passengers with
neither cooks nor stewards. Before they could enjoy a fresh-cooked meal, they
must themselves cook it! Also they must wait upon themselves. Jolly enough in
good weather, for the divided duties helped to while away the hours, but in bad
weather and in sickness entailing not a little hardship.
The supplies furnished by the ship for the main meal, at noon, consisted
generally of salt beef or pork, or cheese ( salt cod or smoked erring on
"fish days", peas (or some other vegetable, as cabbage or turnips),
"biscuit" (hard tack, or ship-bread, taken aboard in great quantity in
barrel), and beer. Reasonably satisfying provender, but very monotonous when
often repeated. No wonder that a catch of fresh fish meant a " merry
feast"!
Well-informed voyagers of sufficiently full pocketbooks fared better,
15
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
for they had planned to spice the ship's diet with "some comfortable
refreshing of fresh victual" from private stores of apples, lemons, prunes,
preserves, biscuit of finer quality, claret, etc.--and even a few live fowls and
sheep to be slaughtered aboard.
The ships galley provided the equipment for group cooking. For the preparation
of special individual and family dishes--for the stewing of prunes, or burning
of claret, or frying of bacon--the passengers had brought their own skillets and
frying-pans.
On stormy days no cooking at all could be done. Lucky then if anything could be
got at and if one did not find that the salt water had wrought havoc on the
bread- room!
The lack of fire was felt less than it would be today. A twentieth-century ocean
voyage without tea or coffee would seem incredible, but those emigrants knew
neither, nor drank water except under compulsion of circumstances. They enjoyed
their beer instead.
A very small vessel fighting its way across a very great ocean. Day after day
and night after night alone upon the face of the waters. The eight and twelve
o'clock watches set with a prayer and the singing of a psalm.
Sometimes becalmed; at others heavily buffeted by the elements. If winds were
unfavorable, days were consumed where hours would now suffice. "Ten leagues
a watch," seven and a half miles an hour, though not maximum, was being
"carried apace."
To the children, living actively in the present without a past to breed anxiety
for the future, the long voyage was less trying than to their parents, but all
the more vivid the impressions it stamped upon their minds to last throughout
their lives.
`Twas a day of excitement when a sail drew eager eyes to the horizon. This might
happen four or five times during the several weeks at sea. Perchance an
Englishman or a Frenchman, or two or three of them together, bound for the
Newfoundland fishing-banks, or a boar from Virginia or the Somers Islands (as
the Bermudas were then generally styled). Perchance, also, a pirate--do feelings
were mixed until a ship's identity was discerned.
With so many people closely housed, there was, inevitable, some friction, and
how and then a trifle of disorderly conduct. As the case of the man who
"was whipt naked at the Cap-stern, with a Cat with Nine tails, for filching
9 great Lemons out of the Chirurgeons Cabbin, which he eat rinds and all in less
than an hours time."
And that other who created a disturbance, being drunk with "strong
16
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND
waters" which he had stolen, and who for punishment was ducked at the
main-yard's arm.
Omens were read in natural phenomena and raised hope, or spread alarm, as
superstition interpreted them. One night " a flame settled upon the main
mast, it was about the bigness of a great Candle, and is called by our Seamen
St. Elmo's fire. It comes before a storm, and is commonly thought to be a
"Spirit." A somewhat common occurrence in the days of wooden ships,
and electric glow appearing at night on a ship's spars, but full of mystic
significance to early mariners.
Then, a tempest to test every seagoing quality. The waves mountainous above the
little vessel as she wallowed in the troughs; the sky shut off by flying foam;
the decks continuously awash and the sea searching down until between-decks ran
in streams. Impossible for even the experienced sailors to move about, or to
stand, or to sit, or to lie, save by desperately gripping rail or rope. The
waves and wind buffeting and tossing and twisting the ship until it seemed
impossible that she could withstand their force.
The emigrants, with awe straining their hearts at this proof of their
insignificance, humbled themselves before their Maker, glorified His power, and
supplicated His assistance and protection.
Only those who have ridden through a heavy storm in a ship of the early emigrant
size, 200 tons or so, can realize how vividly the experience must have impressed
a company of farmers on their first voyage. It is vastly more sensational than
when you have a 50,000 ton, or even a 10,000 ton, vessel challenging the
elements.
When the passengers emerged on deck after the sea had subsided, they looked
fully as distressed as the ship herself, They were bruised and chilled and sick
from the storm's rough treatment, and from lying for many hours in wet cloths on
wet bedding, their lungs poisoned by the foul air of the battened interior.
But bad weather past is quickly forgotten when skies turn fair and comfortable
breezes fill the sails.
As soon as possible, bedding and clothes were brought up on deck to be dried. A
peculiar looking vessel then, if onlookers there had been--with wearing apparel
and blankets and mattresses spread all over her as though she were come queer
ocean dry-goods market.
As the novelty of sea life wore off, many hours dragged tediously, but
"ever and anon" the voyagers found instruction and delight in watching
the various creatures of "the great waters": the sea-bats," or
flying fish; the tiny
17
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
carvels sailing along the surface; the big sunfish, the
"porpoises," and the "mighty whales."
The whales astonished the new voyagers by their size, and excited apprehension
when they "spouted water through two great holes in their heads," the
water pouring down again "like a river" so that if it "should
light in any Ship, she were in danger" of being "sunk sown into the
Sea," the water falling "with such and extreme violence" as to
make "the Sea to boyle like a pot, and if any Vessel be near, it sucks it
in."
The most consistently entertaining of all were the "porpoises," or
"herring-hogs," their antics of uproarious delight to the youngsters.
A porpoise would occasionally be harpooned and hoisted aboard. The
farmer-passengers were keenly interested in the first one caught, noting that it
was in size, shape, and meat a good deal like a hog.
Its flesh was cut "into thin pieces, and fryed." Opinions differed as
to its desirability. Some found that it tasted "like rusty Bacon, or hung
Beef, if not worse"; but they were contradicted be less captious voyagers
who affirmed that , properly cooked and seasoned, it made good eating.
Among other curious sea-denizens to find their way into the skillets or kettles
were occasional specimens of the flying-fish, and swordfishes and a shark or
two. The flesh of the shark found little favor, but its brains were in those
days prized as a great delicacy and considered a valuable medicine for women in
childbirth.
Later, the voyagers marveled at the first iceberg sighted... "an Island of
Ice... three leagues in length, mountain high, in form of land, with Bayes and
Capes... and a river pouring off it into the Sea... two or three foxes or Devils
skipping upon it."
Next were gained the famous "Banks" of Newfoundland. Heavy fogs made
progress slow there but compensation was to hand in an abundance of fresh cod
for little trouble in catching, and great numbers of waterfowl.
Of high interest as the vessel neared its destination was the meeting of boats
with fresh tidings of New England. Happenings there, had become matters of
personal concern, instead of belated far-away stories of a remote continent:
"At 4 of the clock we descryed two sail bound for New-found-land, and so
for the Streights, they told us of a general Earth-quake in Mew England, of the
Birth of a Monster at Boston, in the Massachusets-bay a mortality."
18
THE VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND
Meat in that little batch of news for much thought, conversation, and
conjecture!
Then, never to be forgotten, the first sight of the New World--stirring to a
fever the hopes and ambitions which had driven the emigrants across the ocean.
Only a few hours longer, and land is finally drawn into "clear and
comfortable sight," the sea-worn little ship sailing proudly along the New
England coast. Seen thus, and at that season, in its happiest aspect, it
fulfilled their every vision of a wondrous promised land. Water and land joined
in the promise. Schools of mackerel encompassed the ship, and mainland and
islands alike were rich in verdure.
As the ship lay by near Cape Ann, a few of the most favored emigrants
experienced the happy adventure of actually setting foot upon the shore,
bringing back ripe wild strawberries and gooseberries, and fragrant wild roses.
Cape Ann and the islands near by were early famous for wild strawberries. It is
not to be doubted that the berries were trebled in delicious delicacy by the
many weeks of salt meat, nor that their fresh flavor lingered forever in the
memory.
Then sailing on again for the last miles of the long voyage, each moment and
each detail of entrancing interest.
The panorama continued to unfold until finally our Emigrant Ship passed the
narrow entrance into the "still Bay of Massachusetts" and came within
view of the three hills of Old Boston-- as momentous to the world's history as
ever were the Seven Hills of Rome.
19
The First Weeks in the New World
At the time of William Ward's arrival, Boston was only about eight years old
but it had already achieved a population of a thousand or so, and it palpitated
with life for it was one of the main portals through which the English race was
entering a continent.
It was essentially a pioneer town. Its streets were unpaved. Its wooden
buildings were interspersed with a larger number constructed mainly of clay and
sod, for the peninsula offered the settlers so little timber that they were
compelled to carry it by water from the harbor islands or from the mainland.
There were only about thirty residences of sufficient size to command a
traveler's respect.
The town entered on that part of the peninsula running back from the "Great
Cove" on the east side. Its business heart was around the inner Bendall's
Cove, then the chief landing-place but now for many years solid ground--part of
it is the site of Faneuil hall. Thence the twin business of shipping and
merchandising extended southerly to the foot of the road which is the westerly
portion of the State Street of today. There were warehoused along the wharves
and in their vicinity, and other warehouses and shops (of ships' and general
supplies) and residences along "State Street," where also was the
town's one thatched church and its whipping-post.
The thirty larger houses (including just one of brick!) were furnished much like
those of the moderately well-to-do in the England of the time. They sheltered
the leaders of the community, the more prosperous, the socially elect--for
emigrant ships, be it remembered, carried social distinctions among the
diversity of their cargoes.
Trade and traffic were far in excess of what might have been expected of the
population of a thousand. Boston's position as the link connecting the colony
with other parts of the world--the shipping and the continuous arrival of
immigrants--furnished employment for many people and numerous business
opportunities. The butcher and wine merchant, the linen draper and apothecary,
the carpenter and plasterer, the tailor and shoemaker, the shipwright and
blacksmith--all there callings, and numerous other, were represented.
20
THE FIRST WEEKS IN THE NEW WORLD
Many sails rested in the harbor. Nearly every week during the spring and
summer of that year saw one or more ships from England carrying additions to the
rapidly growing population. With them lay from time to time ships trading from
and with Virginia and the very young settlement of Maryland, the Dutch in New
York, and the French in Canada. Occasionally also an Indian pinnace or two.
The peninsula then contained fewer than 800 acres, for this was generations
before broad stretches of marsh and shallow water were filled in to serve as
foundations for the building of great city streets. On the south it was joined
to the mainland by the narrow extremity of a low-lying, marshy neck of ground
completely submerged by high tides in the spring, Boston then becoming an
island, On the north it was separated by a strip of water, about a quarter of a
mile in width, from another smaller peninsula of similar contour--that later to
become famous as Charlestown and for the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The Boston peninsula had very good land, "affording rich Cornefields, and
fruitful Garden; having likewise sweete and pleasant Springs," but it
offered insufficient pasture, so that the inhabitants early extended their
holdings to the mainland.
Ward unquestionably went "sightseeing" with his family. They traversed
the crooked roads around the wharves, and walked up "State Street,"
stopping to gaze at Governor Winthrop's residence--the main hall of the Exchange
Building now covers the site of the house he occupied in 1638. Then past the
meeting-house to the market-place, and along "Washington Street,"
Pausing to view the house in which Anne Hutchinson had lived. She was no longer
there, for the opening of the spring of 1638 had seen her excommunicated and
banished from Massachusetts for expounding an unorthodox "Covenant of
Grace." They wandered next over the common, notable in several periods of
American history--the park of today, the cow pasture of then.
Probably one fine day or another saw them follow the new `footway" over the
neck to Roxbury, noting the log rails which "secured the cattle from the
wolves" and the defenses to guard against Indian attacks.
In Roxbury they must have admired the further evidences of New World prosperity,
for already at the time of Wood's "New England Prospect" it had become
"a faire and handsome Countrey-towne; the inhabitants of it being all very
rich."
Thence to Dorchester, the third of the triplet of peninsulas, the first
settlement in the Massachusetts Bay, "well wooded and watered," with
"very good arable grounds, and Hay-ground, faire Corne-fields, and pleasant
21
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
Gardens, with Kitchin-Gardens: In this plantation is a great may Cattle, as
Kine, Goats, and Swine, This plantation hath a reasonable Harbour for
ships..." but "here is no Alewife-river, which is a great
inconvenience.
When Wood wrote, Dorchester was "the greatest Towne in New England,"
In the few brief years that had elapsed, the palm had passed to Boston, never to
be returned. Another probable visit was to Charlestown--over the ferry, a big
rowboat, at a penny a head.
Dividing interest with the country itself was its varied social, political, and
religious life. The men among the immigrants mingled freely in the town
"ordinary" with the colonists already established, and over their beer
and cider swapped gossip from the old world for tales of the new. Ward heard the
full story of the massacre of the Pequot Indians and the practical extermination
of the tribe, of the turmoil that had preceded Anne Hutchinson's expulsion, and
of the great earthquake; and listened to debates on the prospects of the new
separate colony of Connecticut. He followed also a discussion on the possibility
of taming moose to do the work of oxen, and found interest in the peculiar
diversity of the money in use--the Indian shell-beads, or "wampum,"
loose and in strings, which passed as currency everywhere, and the
musket-bullets which had taken the place of farthings.
Meantime, the family learned the diet of New England. Fish and shellfish there
were in great abundance to supplement the salt pork and salt beef--lobsters that
weighed thirty pounds, had fifteen-inch pincers, and a total length (with claws
pulled out straight) of close upon four feet. Of novelties was Indian corn as
samp, "hasty pudding," nocake, etc., in bread made of cornmeal and rye
flour, and the ears plain boiled.
A dish of "corn on the cob" then was more picturesque than it is
today. Yellow and white were the common colors for the ears, but these were
varied not only with the red with which we are familiar but with various other
hues--olive and other green tints, blue, and, black, and speckled and striped
and mottled. Milk, also, was a very important article. Bread and milk vied with
mush and milk as a staple breakfast and supper dish. There were, too, "pompion"
(pumpkin) and milk, and berries and milk--native whortleberries and
strawberries, etc.
The "sightseeing" did not consume more than two or three days for
after all there was not a great deal to see in that very new Boston of long ago-
22
THE FIRST WEEKS IN THE NEW WORLD
-and what there was, was quickly reached by English legs well trained in
walking. So Ward returned to the important task of establishing himself and his
family.
Numerous choices presented themselves, for the line of civilization was
spreading over the eastern part of Massachusetts by successive
"swarming" from the points first settled, as ship after ship
discharged its passengers and spread the rising tide of population. Before 1638
eighteen "towns," or organized groups of settlers, had achieve
existence of Massachusetts Bay.
The sites most sought were those which contained a good water supply, sufficient
pasture, and open land which could with the smallest amount of labor be used for
the planting of grain. Timber also was an essential, but that was discussed
little as it was found in nearly every part of the colony outside of Boston.
Among the most promising was the tract, named "Sudbury" in 1639, whose
settlement had been projected by a number of the inhabitants of Watertown and
had been approved by the colony legislature, the "General Court." It
was part of the Concord River region known among the Indians as "Musketahquid,"
signifying "grassy ground" or "grassy brook." It adjoined
Watertown (the part now Weston) on the east and the new Concord
"plantation" on the north. Its attractions included the river (Sudbury
River) and smaller streams traversing it, a rich acreage of pasture (or
"meadow") alongside them, and open woods. Crossing the southeasterly
section was the "Old Bay Path," an Indian trail which ran for hundreds
of miles inland from the sea and which had already become an accepted route for
settlers journeying to the Connecticut River.
23
Founding Sudbury, Mass.
Ward decided to join the Sudbury "plantation." Of like mine were
others among the newcomers. Fresh immigrants, indeed, constituted a majority of
the first settlers, from forty to fifty in number, who thus placed themselves
and their families on the outskirts of civilization.
The General Court grant was intended to enclose about five miles square. As laid
out, the tract fell short of this dimension, but the deficiency was made good by
a second grant in 1640. The native tile was obtained by purchase from the Indian
"Cato" (known also as "Karte" and "Goodman").
As already noted, this territory touched that of Weston and Concord on the east
and north. West and south stretched the wilderness, broken only by Indian
villages.
A few wigwams stood within its boundaries. Cato dwelt with his family and
retainers on "Goodman's Hill"; Tantamous, a "powwow," or
medicine man, on Nobscot Hill; Nataous, or "Indian William," near Lake
Cochituate, And the well-worn trails told of red men traversing the section to
hunt and fish--for deer roamed and turkeys strutted through the woods; bears
were at home in the highlands; and salmon, shad, pickerel, and alewives filled
the river and streams. This wild food was as acceptable and nearly as important
to the new white settlers as for centuries it had been to the Indians.
The streams were also a favorite habitat of muskrats and beavers, the pelts of
the latter being early rated as valuable merchandise. And grouse and other game
birds were plentiful in their seasons. Pigeons were so prolifically numerous
that settlers could not consume all they caught. After stripping off the
feathers to make mattresses they fed them to the hogs.
Permission by the General Court "to go on in their plantation" was
given September 6, 1638. Many of the settlers (Ward among them?) anticipated
this formal authorization and were at work with their ox-teams early in the
summer, felling trees for their cabins, making rough roadways, mowing the
meadows, and clearing logs and brush form patches selected for
24
FOUNDING SUDBURY
the planting of the first "common," or community, fields.
Of great moment were the first town meetings which decided on the division of
lands, on the roads to be laid out, on planting questions, on fences, and on all
the other problems of community life, especially pioneer community life.
Four acres was the average size of the "house-lots," or home plots,
agreed upon.
The cabins of these pioneer families were small and of simple construction. A
single story of whole and split logs, with two rooms at most in the beginning,
with a wide log chimney covered and filled between with clay (the interstices of
the walls being similarly closed), the roof of thatch, the windows of oiled
paper, and the hearth of field stones.
Some of the cabins were in all probability built chiefly of clay, timber being
used only for the frames; or consisted of a timber (or timber and clay) front on
a home cut into a hillside.
They were mostly grouped for mutual companionship and protection, and were laid
out east of the river, in the vicinity of the present Wayland Village, chiefly
to its northwest and north. Twenty or more were situated in a row along the
westerly side of the "Old Sudbury Road," northwesterly of its junction
with Bow Road. They were not on the easterly side of Old Sudbury Road as
generally stated.
Ward's house-lot was on a road long discontinued--a fork of Glezen Lane which
formerly ran northerly, from about the same point that Training Field Road forks
easterly, into the first easterly turn of Moore Road and thus into the road to
Concord (see the map facing page 26). It was on the present Patterson farm, in
the lee (the southerly side) of the first southerly slope west of the first
easterly turn of Moore Road. One of its attractions was a good spring in the
vicinity.
Along this some road were the house-lots of Walter Haynes and William Pelham
(two of the "principal men" in the early history of the settlement),
Solomon Johnson, and John Freeman.
After the cabins were roofed came the transportation from Boston and Watertown
by slow two-wheel ox-drawn cars, and on horseback, of the store of food across
the ocean, and corn and other produce purchased since arrival; and clothing,
bedding, and a few pieces of furniture. With them or following them came the
women and children.
25
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
For travel on later occasions when there was nothing to bulky to carry, the
settlers quickly adopted the Indian use of canoes and took to the rivers and
streams as highways, finding this the easiest method of getting to various
near-by points and, on occasion, to Boston.
Several of the settlers brought families of fair size--from five to nine
children of all ages. Ward had five children, as we have already noted: John,
the oldest, being in 1638 about twelve years of age; Joanna ten; Obadiah six;
Richard three; and little Deborah, one.
As became pioneers, the heads of families were of active years. Only one of the
newcomers from England had passed fifty. Perhaps three or four were between
forty and fifty. All the others were under forty. Ward was about thirty-five.
Then came the winter. Those who have experienced the severity of a Massachusetts
winter, even amidst modern conditions, may imagine how rigorous it must have
seemed to those immigrants from milder England. It was no small labor even to
cut the wood to feed the big open fireplaces. There were also the cattle to care
for, roads to be "broken out" after a heavy snowfall (by ox-sleds and
plows drawn by all available ox-teams), and (when weather permitted) the
clearing of ground for cultivation in the spring, the building of wall fences,
etc.
But they fought it through and by the spring of 1639 the township had been
successfully founded.
26
Pioneer Life in Old Massachusetts
It is probable that early in 1639 the Sudbury settlers arranged a first division of meadow ("as much as shall be thought meet") on the following plan:
"To every Mr. of a ffamylie 06 akers
"To every Wiffe 06 akers & 1/2
"To every childe 01 akers & 1/2
"to Every Mare, Cow, ox or anny other Cattle that may
amount to 20 pound, or soe much monnye 3 Akers."
Only the resolution has been preserved. There is no record of such a
distribution. If made, Ward was entitled to twenty acres for his family alone.
About the same time commenced allotments based upon "men's estates and
abilities to improve their lands"-- conditions imposed by the General
Court.
"Estate" was a term frequently employed to signify a community's
composite estimate of an inhabitant's resources, social position, etc. The
result was variously arrived at, but the significance and intent are clear.
Recognition of a settler's "estate" served as recognition both of the
social precedence inbred among the colonists and of the desirability of giving
the utmost opportunity for a man of means to aid in the development of a
township--and such opportunity could be given only, or could best be given, by
land grants.
The conjoined requirement to weigh the respective abilities of men to improve
their lands is self- explanatory. The consideration was one of prime importance
in pioneer days. Disregard of it was responsible for the failure of numerous
early attempts at colonization.
Every original Sudbury settler received a share in each land division but the
size of the shares on the "estate" basis varied greatly. The first
lands thus allotted were of "meadow," and these meadow divisions were
taken as a measure for future divisions of the "common land" of the
original grant, and for the use of "common land" until divided.
27
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
They served also as a basis for taxation, the rates being levied in the same
proportion.
Ward's allotments in the first three estate distributions of meadow were 4 1/2,
11 and 7 3/4 acres, a total of 23 1/2 acres.* Several of the founders received
considerably more, the maximum being 75 acres. A larger number received less
than Ward. Several were given similar allowances.
The land being parceled out at various times (its location within certain limits
being generally decided by lot) a man's real property came to consist of a
number of scattered pieces--much after the fashion of the acre and half-acre
"strips" of early English villages. This gave every one representation
in each section opened, but it increased the difficulties of ownership and led
to numerous sales and exchanges.
Important too was the election of town officials, particularly of "selected
men" to serve as executives of the township and as its informal local
judiciary. Selectmen under pioneer conditions held widely diversified authority,
both delegated and assumed. They were necessarily of character and standing
among their associates, and generally "freemen," i.e., those who had
taken the "freeman's oath."
The term "freeman" signified in Massachusetts at that date a fully
qualified voter. The chief requirement was membership in a duly recognized
church. Membership signified admission to the church corporation. It did not
refer to attendance at worship. Everyone physically able attended church whether
a member or not.
The spring and summer of 1639 saw a good many acres under cultivation and every
spare moment occupied in building fences and breaking more land, both in the
common planting fields and in "men's particular fields."
There was "store of plowland" but it was difficult t break up "by
reason of the oaken roots... this kinde of land requires great strength to break
up, yet brings very good crops, and lasts long without mending."
A grist-mill was built by a miller with the appropriate name of Cakebread. The
community gave him 130 acres by way of encouragement.
* These figures are from an original "record of the names of the
inhabitants of Sudbury, with their severall quantity of meadow to every one
granted according to their estates or graunted by gratulation for services
rendered by them, which meadow is ratable upon all common charges." This is
given in the first part of the first book of records. It bears no original date.
The "1638" that some town clerk added is incorrect and has been
erased. 1639 would probably be accurate for the first two divisions at all
events.
At this point one may question the assumption of this genealogy that William Wad
settled on the Sudbury tract in 1638, for his name does not appear on an old
separate list of the first and second estate meadow divisions. The early records
are too incomplete to permit deductive certainly from omissions, but they
warrant the conjecture that he may have joined the settlement in 1639 or 1640,
purchasing rights earlier granted. He appears on a record of "third
additions," November 18, 1640.
28
PIONEER LIFE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS
Mills did not then convent grain into the finished flour we know. Their work
ended with grinding it into meal. "Bolting" the meal was a domestic
duty. Accomplished by means of hair or cloth sieves.
There was a vast amount of labor to be performed.
Those who are related to families who have taken up government claims, or
"quarter-sections." during this generation, know how hard has often
been the strugle to establish a living competence, even though shielded from all
hostiles, both red and white; though spared the loss of time and population
incidental to war, and aided in many ways by improved means and conditions in
agriculture. There were no government bureaus or experimental stations to serve
the farmers of those days. The settlers must of their own strength and courage
meet all the difficulties of opening a new country, and in addition be ever
ready to insure their titles in a rain of blood. It was only the simplicity of
their lives that rendered possible the comfortable prosperity which followed
their efforts.
There was the important mitigation that much of their toil was in neighborly
companionship. There was little of the lonely isolation that weighed on the
later pioneers of the western states. "Rich' or poor, they labored at
similar tasks and often side by side, and they all owned a share in the
constructive pride of seeing a new township take form as the result of their
toil.
Community obligations, too, were equitably divided. The richer the man's stake
in the district--not only the higher the rates he paid, but also the more
community labor expected of him. An early order required all inhabitants to
"come forth to the mending of the great road" upon a summons by the
surveyor: the "poorest men" to work one day; the others to work a day
for every six acres of meadow owned.
A church was organized in 1640 (with, of course, Congregational form and
Calvinistic creed), the Reverend Edmund Brown being engaged as pastor. His
salary for his initial year was 40 (pounds), half in cash and half in produce.
He must have held services in the cabins during his first winters, for work on
the meeting-house was not commenced until 1643.
This first meeting-house stood in the "Old Burying- ground" which
abuts on the Old Sudbury Road near Wayland Village. It was perhaps set a little
back of the supposed site which is marked by a slight embankment and a granite-
imbedded bronze marker. It stood across the highway from the row of twenty or
more house-lots mentioned on page 25.
29
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
Opposite is a reduced facsimile of the contract for its construction William
Ward being one of the six men who signed for the township. * (THIS MAY NOT BE ON
THIS COPY).
This document is of the haze which obscures his prior life, and assumes definite
form visioned in the mirror of his associates, and of his and their acts.
What type of man was he? Of what character and what circumstances?
Apparently he was not one of the few (comparatively) well-to-do among the
Sudbury founders. It has already been noted that the meadow divisions "by
men's estates" gave a number of settlers land considerably in excess of his
allotment. In the table of the "third additions" of 1640, twenty-two
of the forty-nine inhabitants named were given substantially more than
Ward--some of them very much more--and only five received appreciably less. His
worldly possessions were evidently not such as to accord him special preference.
**
But he was just as evidently a man whose character and personality impressed the
community, or he would not appear as one of the six chosen to represent it in
the meeting-house contract. The five others were all "freemen," and
three of them were of those of especially high rating by "estates."
Ward was the only one of the six neither well-to-do nor a freeman.
The erection of the meeting-house frame took place in May, 1643. Every man in
the settlement was on hand to help, for "raising time" was a jolly
occasion in Old New England, with plenty of substantial food and inspiriting
beverages to stimulate and reward the workers.
The completed meeting-house was only a rough, raftered building, 20 by 30 feet
in size, with plain wooden benches and sanded floors, but it served as a
veritable social and political center. It was in many respects a replica of the
English parish church as it had been prior to the time of Laud.
At the drum-beat signal, the inhabitants gathered to it every Sunday morning,
each taking the seat assigned to him (its position denoted his standing in the
community) to profit by the minister's long sermon and fervid
* It will be observed that in the church contract Ward's surname appears as "Warde." As noted on page 3 he was known by both styles during his first years in Massachusetts. The two spellings were, in general use, long practically interchangeable. Some o his twentieth- century descendants have re-adopted the "e." The original writing of the date "1642" for a contract made in 1643 is a reminder that the ecclesiastical and legal year then commenced on the twenty-fifth of March, instead of the January 1st of the historical year. On the upper date line the "2" was changed to a "3." The date on the canceled clause at the foot of the page remains clearly "1642." ** His house-lot has been given as 20 acres, much larger than the average, but that tract included "a second addition which he bought of Edmund Rice."
30
PIONEER LIFE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS
exhortations, and to take part in the singing of psalms from the "Bay
Psalm Book," now known as the "Old Bay Psalm Book" but then a
very new volume, published only three years before and the first book (save an
almanac, it that be a book) printed in English America.
On occasion also, as the years went by, the confession of doctrinal or moral
sins by members, and once in a while testimony, or "prophecy," by
visitors.
Long, long services. In winter, a severe test of the physical endurance of both
minister and congregation, for no fire was allowed to temper the freezing
atmosphere. Nor much less a trial on torrid summer days. But in contrast the
more enjoyable was the noon intermission in one or other of the near-by houses,
there to refresh both with food and drink and with welcome social intercourse.
The community life revolving around the meeting- house was much fuller and much
brighter than has generally been depicted. Banish the idea of somberness. It
does not fit a crowd of men and women of kindred interests, chatting over their
beer, cider, or rum, with the rough jocosity and wide freedom of those times--a
community furthermore which knew its neighbors most intimately--so will that
every happening found its reflection in another's, or many others', experience.
They probably derived at least as much pleasure from their broad jokes and
neighborly converse as the modern family does from its afternoon at the movies,
unless the show is very good indeed!
The Boston artisan and shop-clerk felt sadly cramped, and frequently and
variously rebelled at Sabbath restrictions--and children and youths of
communities of all sizes were restless under the repression of their inherent
activity--but strict "Lord's Day" observance was not considered
irksome by the adults of the farming lands. If (being a woman) you are
continuously busy during six days at the spinning-wheel and with cooking,
washing, and cleaning, it is not much of a punishment to sit restfully down in
the company of your neighbors and listen to, or doze through, even the longest
sermon, except the weather be extreme. Golf was not for the men of those
families. After following the plow, or building stone fences for six days in a
week, they would have found no zest in pursuing a little ball over their
pastures on the Seventh. And motoring in its colonial forms of driving and
riding lacked both novelty and pleasurable roads.
Even their costumes! Whence came the tradition of a drab Puritan?
31
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
They had not left all vanities behind them in the Old Country. The women
particularly, but not exclusively, were much given to "slashed
clothes" and lace and embroidery. So string indeed was the love of dress
and display that numerous laws were passed to curb the "great supfluores
and unnecessary expenses" occasioned both by "newe and immodest
fashions" and by the "ordinary weareing" of lace, and gold and
silver girdles, etc. And a crowd of men of the twentieth century would feel
themselves the very reverse of somberly attired if decked out with green and red
waistcoats, enlivened with a sprinkling of red caps, and perhaps
"ruffs" and some gold or silver lace. Yet so were our colonists
clothed.
The meeting-house was, furthermore, made to pay its way by various other general
uses. It served as a proud new place for the town meetings which ruled the
miniature republic, the meetings now opened with a prayer by Pastor Brown.
Presently, too, it drew the inhabitants for the Thursday "lecture."
Also within its walls was stored the community's reserve supply of gunpowder--a
dire essential, for William Ward's Sudbury was not the sheltered village of
later generations. Over its "50 or 60 families" with "about 80
souls in Church fellowship," always hung the possibility of a life and
death struggle with the aborigines. No Indian trouble of any magnitude had
disturbed the immigrants who arrived after the Pequat War, but the "red
danger" was no imaginary fear as everyone was to learn in after years.
The need of constant vigilance was fully recognized by the provincial deputies.
Every township was required to organize and drill its "trainband," or
militia company, to keep a stated reserve of gunpowder to agree upon alarm
signals, and to arrange a safe retreat for women and children.
Also at various times the General Court ordered the sending out of "carefull
and daly skouts for the rainginge of the woods upon the borders" of the
towns and in 1645 (just two years after Sudbury raised its meeting- house) came
instructions "by reason of the psent warre with the Indians," to have
part of their "souldiers" ready to march at "halfe an houres
warning." Thus early we find the idea that a hundred and thirty years later
produced the Minute-Men of the Revolution!
It was not sufficient that every able-bodied man belong to his town-ship
train-band. On May 14, 1645, the General Court advised the training of boys in
the use of both bow and arrow and firearms:
32
PIONEER LIFE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS
"Whereas it is conceived yt ye training up of youth to ye art & practice of armes wilbe of great use in ys country in divers respects, & amonge ye rest yt ye use of bowes & arrows may be of good concermt, in defect of powder, upon any occasion it is therefore ordered, yt all, youth wthin this jurisdiction, from ten yeares ould to ye age of sixeteen yeares, shalbe instructed, by some one of ye officrs of ye band, or some othr experienced souldier whom ye chiefe officer shall appoint, upon ye usuall training dayes, in ye exercise of armes, as small guns, halfe pikes, bowes & arrowes, &c, according to ye discretion of ye said officer or souldier, pvided yt no child shalbe taken to ys exrcise against yir parents minds; ys ordr to be of force wthin one month after ye publication hereof."
So we must picture young Obadiah, then thirteen, and Richard, ten, practicing
on the Common, supplementing the martial preparations of father William and big
brother John.
This, too, was an echo of old-country memories, for it had been the custom in
Southhampton and other exposed English coast-towns to require all children,
commencing with the age of seven, to practice archery as a measure of public
protection.
Sudbury's position was considered so precarious that the same General Court
forbade any emigration from the township save by special permit:
"In regard of the great danger that Concord, Sudberry, and Dedham wilbe exposed unto, being inland townes & but thinly peopled, it is ordered, that no man now inhabiting & settleed in any of the said townes (whither married or single) shall remove to any other towne without the allowance of a magistrate, or other select men of that towne."
On May 10, 1643, Ward became a "freeman" and thus secured the right
of full suffrage and eligibility to all political positions.
The following spring, he was selected the township deputy, or representative, to
the General Court. The term in which he took part was the first in which the
Deputies and Assistants (or Magistrates) had sat as separate bodies, a result
generally credited to the famous fight between a "rich man" and the
"poor widow Sherman" over a stray sow.
Ward's first legislative duty was on a committee appointed June 7 to examine a
revision of the colonial laws submitted by ex-Governor Bellingham "and
returne theire objections & thaughts thereof to this howse in wrighteinge."
The next year (1645) he was, together with Peter Noyes and Walter Haynes,
appointed a commissioner "to end small causes" in Sudbury. Which
appointment was repeated in 1646, with William Pelham and Edmund Rice as
associates.
He also for several years as chairman of Sudbury's selectmen and represented his
community on the grand jury of the county court at Charlestown and Cambridge.
33
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
His holdings, too, increased by division of the township land, by occasional
purchase, and by "gratulation," i.e., by grants from the township for
special services rendered. A particularly large dividend came at the division on
1651 of a new colony grant, two miles wide, the length of the western boundary
of the township. this time every proprietor shared alike, 130 acres each, the
locations being decided by lot. Ward's total holdings thus rose to between two
and three hundred acres. The change of hemisphere had been well rewarded.
The colony likewise had proved its strength and vitality, standing firmly now on
its own feet. The tide of immigration had stopped. Other colonies chiefly
attracted those who left the old country--emigrants found life easier in the
West Indies. The development of the Massachusetts which was later to challenge
the mother country was left to the descendants of the original settlers who had
carved homes out of its wilderness.
The change had brought a commercial crisis to Massachusetts but she had
weathered it and worked out her salvation in her own way, greatly increasing as
a substitute her ship-carried barter and trade, especially with the West Indies.
She fought her own fight through the crisis, entirely unaided by the mother
country, but also undisturbed by it, for King Charles was too busy engaged to
interfere, too thoroughly occupied with efforts to retain the crown slipping
from his head.
34
Policies and Suffrage in Old Massachusetts
The cardinal policies that quickly developed in the Massachusetts
commonwealth were practical independence for the colony, identity of church and
state, and intolerance of all "unorthodox" religions.
Bearing on the first point, the "foreign policy" of the Massachusetts
Bay pioneers is easily summed up in the determination of their leaders to resent
any interference with their methods of self-government and the charter upon
which they based and built their rights--or claims. An appeal to England was
considered an act of treason, to be thwarted by any means--by exile,
imprisonment, or death; and the chief necessity, an undivided front opposed to
all attempts of the English government, secular or religious, to extend its
control. Firmly set was their intent to establish their own plans and ideas of
government upon the virgin soil that fate and themselves had given into their
keeping.
Equally emphasized is the identity of church and state. The colonial government
soon came under the potential control of the people by the annual election of
the governor, assistants, deputies, military officers, etc., but complete
suffrage was (as already noted) early limited to church members. Until 1664 only
"freemen" could vote for governor, assistants, or deputies, or fill
such offices, and only freemen could hold military rank. And commencing with
1631 only members of orthodox Congregational churches were eligible for the
freeman's oath. From 1635 to 1647 there existed also a law to debar non-freemen
from holding township positions and rendering them ineligible to vote on town
matters of importance.
A considerable proportion of the adult males of 1638 were freemen, but various
circumstances, chiefly creed dissensions and restrictions, resulted until 1664
in a decreasing percentage if inhabitants who could, or would, qualify by
accepting orthodox covenants. It is estimated that only one in five or one in
six were freemen in 1664.
These statements may suggest, as has often been stated, that a majority of the
inhabitants were politically inarticulate. Under Massachusetts conditions the
practical result was very far from anything of the sort. In the
35
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
country townships (i.e., throughout the greater part of the colony)
non-freemen largely disregarded legislative restrictions and took an active and
official part in the management of their communities; * and local opinion was so
vital a force that there seems no reason to doubt that the inhabitants of
Massachusetts would have compelled the annulment of the church membership
qualification if there had been any deep general dissatisfaction with it, or if
legislation or executive authority had shown itself inimical to the material
rights of those not enfranchised. Had there been an attempt to withhold suffrage
against public opinion, the Massachusetts Bay men could have taken it by
pressure of numbers, as the freemen took the reins of government from the
unwilling hands of those "principal men" in whom. its temporary
possessors, it had commenced to crystallize.
It should further be noted for its influence on public sentiment that, within
the church membership, suffrage was free to all men, poor or well-to-do. This
gave full voting power to poor men who were disbarred when property
qualifications were substituted.
The restriction of suffrage gave to the colony leaders very real power over
religious professions and observances so long as they could hold the support of
the freemen, because those outside the pale were divided or indifferent, but no
autocratic pretension on secular subjects could have existed.
The orthodox hierarchy mimicked the practices of the religious authorities in
England and played the part of Laud against dissentients--the jealousy and
dissatisfaction it aroused accelerated the colonization of Rhode Island and
Connecticut--but in material points there was no similarity to the conditions
which had stimulated emigration from England. There was no arbitrary taxation,
no official corruption, no autocratic irremovable government.
The distribution of land is an all-important factor in the opening of a now
country. The average man's immediate interest was much more intimately affected
by the division of township territory than by the lack of a vote for an
Assistant or a Deputy.
The Massachusetts settlers came from a country of landlords and tenants, both
classes being represented in the migration, but on the new soil everyone who
took part in the settlement of a township shared in the division
* The law of 1635 referred to on page 35 was ignored in the case of Sudbury both by the settlers and by the General Court itself. The legislature had specifically debarred non-freemen from any vote concerning the "layeing out of lotts, &c.," yet only two of the seven Sudbury men that it commissioned, September 4 1639, to "lay out lands" were freemen at that time; and, as already noted, Ward was not a freeman when he was appointed to sigh for the town.
36
POLICIES AND SUFFRAGE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS
of its lands, irrespective of his suffrage qualifications or lack of them.
The size of a family and its financial resources, social rank, and other
considerations were influential in determining the social rank, and other
considerations were influential in determining the size of allotments, but
suffrage qualifications accorded no preference whatever.
No great discernment required to perceive the weakness and dangers of the theory
of the church membership restriction, but it draws more indignation from modern
writers than it did from those who lived and toiled and hoped and built within
its shadow. It was not as a rule sensed as oppressive except by some residents
of the older towns, as Boston and the vicinity. Those in the newer settlements
had their minds and hands very full in the established and operation of their
communities.
Full suffrage was indeed a duty frequently evaded by those eligible--to such an
extent that the General Court of 1647 passed a law with penalties for those
"many members of churches, who, to exempt ymselves from all publik service
in ye common wealth, will not come in to be made freemen."
It seems to me that altogether too much has been made of the early restriction
of suffrage in Massachusetts. Many of those entitled to the privilege, did not
want it; and those not entitled to it, could have obtained it if they had made a
general demand for it.
Also, a wrong perspective is attained by historians who recite the history of
Boston as that of Massachusetts. Too much space is accorded to controversies and
their happenings in the capital. It was to a large degree the development of the
hinterland that made Massachusetts great.
On the last of the tree points cited at the commencement of this
chapter--religious intolerance--one finds, on the other hand, ample evidence to
sustain the modern indictment against the leaders of the first generations. Some
of them aggressively and others with lingering unwillingness set from themselves
the light they had earlier held for freedom of religious exercise; and for this
the entire enrolled body of freemen--holding in their power the election of
governor, assistants, and deputies, and themselves "settling" the
clergy--must bear their share of responsibility.
The intolerant spirit which animated the freemen and clergy in 1637--the setting
aside of Vane as the result of the Anne Hutchinson religious excitement, and the
edicts of the famous Synod--was indeed representative of the trend of
Massachusetts thought. A dispute over, or the non-acceptance of,
37
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
a doctrinal point was a very serious matter. Local histories tell of many
community quarrels and dissensions over ambiguous, gossamered theological
tenets, and the political happenings of the summer of 1637 prove that the policy
pursued was at the time the general wish of Massachusetts outside of Boston.
Furthermore, though, as decades went by, the freemen shrank to a small minority,
the orthodox church party always probably constituted an active plurality, for
dissentients presented a very wide variety of indifference and division.
There are many other interesting sides to the subject:
The idea of a theocracy built upon the Old Testament was strongly held by many
of the early settlers. The manner of the colony inception favored the idea of a
proprietary community. The "principal men" believed that the safety of
the new commonwealth lay in its continuing as much as possible under their
personal control--and the delicacy of the political connections between
Massachusetts Bay and the old country constantly excited the fear that any
schism or dissension that was not crushed or smothered might destroy the power
which they exercised by virtue of charter, precedent, and personality, or might
develop into a cause or pretext for royal interference, Some of the clergy were
autocratic but they had been placed in their offices by virtue if the trust felt
in them by their congregations--they were not appointed by any King, bishop, or
individual patron. They were respected for their learning and they stood in the
forefront of the spirit of independence.
To ascribe to Massachusetts' suffrage and religious restrictions the cessation
of immigration from England is an unreasonable stretching of the indictment.
Neither one, nor both together, would have sufficed if economic conditions had
equaled or exceeded the apparent promise of other colonies. The majority of
those who emigrated from England were not so self-sacrificingly devoted to
religious tenants nor so accustomed to suffrage privileges or rights. It will be
remembered that immigration was not resumed when religious restrictions were
removed.
It would, truly, have made a handsomer historical picture if Massachusetts had
from the first both accepted and practiced the theory of religious tolerance,
but there is enough glory for her in that she held steadily burning the light of
abundant opportunity for the development of prosperous family life. In that
respect she was infinitely in advance of the mother country, which was instead
steadily cramping her citizenry.
39
POLICIES AND SUFFRAGE IN OLD MASSACHUSETTS
William Ward's Political Views
Of this New England party of secular opportunity and religious intolerance
was William Ward. He was early prominent among the lay members of his church,
and he was after May 1643 a fully accredited freeman. Beyond these general facts
we lack sufficient information to determine his personal views. Massachusetts
policies had set before his arrival, and during its first decades Sudbury was
blessedly free from church disputes, its inhabitants living together in
"godly peace and unity."
A number of Ward's associates were quicker than he in enrolling as freemen. Was
he a full-fledged church member (and therefore entitled to take the oath) prior
to 1643? There is nothing to decide this. Did he become a freeman because he
wanted to be a deputy? He was elected the following year. Or had he refrained
from becoming one, because he did not want to me a deputy or to have other
additional responsibilities?
39
Founding a Second Township
Seventeen years have passed since the founding of Sudbury. In Old England,
King Charles has been beheaded and Oliver Cromwell rules as Lord Protector. In
New England, one finds the pioneer settlements developing into an oversees
nation, already with a population of nearly fifty thousand, more than half of it
in Massachusetts.
Boston, with three to four thousand inhabitants, has grown to the stature of a
famous seaport. She is busy with shipbuilding, and craft engaged in fishing, and
trading in fish and lumber and other commodities. She deals much with the other
colonies, and is the chief market of the West Indies. Her ships ply freely
across the Atlantic also, trafficking both with England and with other European
countries. The milestones of pioneer conditions have been left so far behind
that they are will nigh forgotten. Several more brick buildings have made their
appearance. There is a noticeable showing of the luxuries of life.
In contrast are other conditions difficult to visualize. New York, for example,
is still a little town of fewer than a thousand inhabitants. Though easily
accessible from Boston by water, it is overland, separated by a hard two weeks
or more of riding, part of the way through virgin forests. You can go today from
New York to Japan nearly as quickly, and with much less discomfort. Another
eighteen years is to pass before the first post carries letters between the two
towns, and even then it is to prove a plan too far advanced for the times and to
be soon abandoned.
The flight of time has dealt kindly with the Sudbury settlement. Herds have
multiplied until the neat cattle alone total several hundred, and households
have added comforts impossible during the first few years. Ward's family has
been increased by seven children--a total now of seven sons and five daughters.
But the knowledge that every year added to the number of their children
attaining marriageable age and ready to establish their own homes, raised a new
problem in the minds of the Sudbury proprietors. The township
40
FOUNDING A SECOND TOWNSHIP
which had first appeared so spacious, now seemed too small.
It is true that its territory of thirty-five square miles contained only about
seventy-five families, and one may be inclined to smile at their assertion that
they were cramped, but the conditions of those days were not the conditions of
twentieth-century Massachusetts, nor their needs our needs. Their principal
wealth, apart from their lands, was in cattle, and a plentiful supply of natural
mowing ground and pasture was to them essential.
About 1650 John had married Hannah Jackson and had settled in Cambridge (that
part now Newton). With his exception, all the members of the family set their
thoughts on the virgin lands of the province, and Ward with various other
representative men of Sudbury took many a prospecting trip "to view the
country."
They finally decided (in 1655 or early in 1656) on "a place which lyeth
westward abut eight mikes from Sudbury" which they conceived might be
"comfortable for their subsistence," and promptly on the convening of
the General Court at Boston on May, 1656, they presented their petition for
authority to establish a "plantation" there, stating that they were
"so streightned" for land for their stock.. "God haveing given us
some considerable quantity of Cattle".. that they could not "so
comfortably subsist as could be desired."... That "God hath been
pleased to increase our Children, which are now divers of them growne to man's
Estate; & wee, many of us, growne into years, so as that wee should bee glad
to see them setled before ye Lord take us away from hence."
Ward and twelve others were the signatories. All but one of them were members,
or sons of members, of the earliest roll of Sudbury pioneers.
The General Court granted the request without hesitation or demur. The Sudbury
record of the petitioners was ample guarantee of their ability to establish a
new settlement. They were accorded "a proportion of land sixe miles square,
or otherwise in some convenient forme equivalent thereunto, at ye discretion of
ye Committee, in ye place desired; provided it hinder no former Graunt; and that
there bee a Towne settled with Twenty or more families within three years, so as
an Able Ministry may be there maintained."
It was later found that the grant conflicted with one given to a group o
"Praying Indians." This difficulty was overcome by setting off 6000
acres for an Indian Plantation, the founders receiving compensation in other
adjacent
41
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
unoccupied land. The grant also overlapped private concessions, but the
disputes were adjusted. *
Then came plans for land divisions, and a careful consideration of the
possibilities of the new township, which was variously known at this stage as
Ockoocangansett, Whipsufferadge, and Whipsuppenicke.
The founders discarded the comparatively compact, central-village style of
Sudbury. The house-lots they laid out averaged much larger-- from sixteen to
fifty acres--and their homes were consequently further apart. This was a few
years later to make the settlement easy prey for Indians.
Also unlike Sudbury, the size of the house-lots was determined by the
"estate" standing of the settlers. All later land divisions were in
proportion to them. and all public charges were assessed by the same measure.
Three men were recognized by their estate standing as the most prominent in the
new community. Each was accorded a fifty-acre house-lot. Ward was one of the
three.
Two of his sons also participated: Obadiah, then twenty-five years of age,
received a house-lot of twenty- one acres, and Richard, twenty-two years old, a
house-lot of eighteen acres. (The ages given are of 1657.)
It was agreed that all the proprietors must "themselves...bee
resident" in the township "within two yeares time, or sett a man in
that ye Towne shall approve of, or els to loose theire lotts"; and Ward,
Thomas King, John Ruddocke, and John Howe were chosen to put its affairs
"in an orderly way."
Among their first acts was the "settling" of a minister, the Reverend
William Brimsmead, a very worthy man but said to have been so strict a
Sabbatarian that he refused t baptize children who had been so indiscreet as to
come into the world on Sunday. Pastor Brimsmead was given a plot of thirty
acres.
The successful launching of the project with its opportunity for new homes had
been quickly followed by two marriages in the Ward household. Hannah married
Abraham How of Waterton in the early spring of 1657, and Deborah was united in
the fall to John, son of Solomon Johnson, who had been the Ward' nearest
neighbor in Sudbury until his removal to Watertown in 1652, following the sale
of his house-lot and other near-by plots to William
* A survey of the township made in 1667 shows an area of 29,419 acres instead of the six miles square of the original grant. Other additions and subtractions preceded the present boundary lines of Marlborough. Westborough, Southborough, and Northborough are largely on land formerly within its limits.
42
FOUNDING A SECOND TOWNSHIP
Ward. Abraham was accorded a twenty-five acre house-lot in Marlborough and
John received thirty acres, the small difference probably constituting an
allowance for a poor stretch of ground, or to encompass a spring, or for other
reasons of location.
The most energetic men of the new township--which included Ward, for his name is
found on orders urging speedier action in making improvements and laying
penalties for neglect to do so--had their lots "perfected," and some
had houses built and their families installed in them by or before 1659, others
were slower-- a fact which caused much ill feeling and later raised a hornet's
nest of disputes and community squabbles.
Drastic action was threatened at a town-meeting held in December, 1659. It was
resolved:
That all such as lay clayme to any Interest in this new Plantation at
Whipsufferadge are to perfect their House Lotts by the five & twentieth of
March next insueing or els to loose all theire Interest in the fforsaid
Plantation."
It is also ordered That every one that hath A Lott in Ye foresd Plantation shall
pay Twenty Shillings by ye ffive & twentieth of March next ensueing or els
to loose all theire Interest in the fforesaid Plantation."
On June 12, 1660 (May 31, Old Style) the General Court confirmed the
plantation grant and named it "Marlborow."
This was followed by the town's confirmation and record of the house-lots laid
out and by its first division of meadow. The number of proprietors had by this
time increased to thirty-eight.
The settlers avoided to some extent Sudbury's ownership of scattered outlying
pieces of pasture and arable land by so ordering the first division of meadow
and the second division of upland that each man's shares lay "most
convenient" to his "Habitation."
Some of the Wards were early in Marlborough, William Ward himself moved there
for good in the early spring of 1661.
The family constituted quite a colony in itself. There were father William
"of Sudbury" and mother Elizabeth; their four big sons--Obadiah,
twenty-nine years old, Richard, twenty-six, Samuel, nineteen, and Increase,
sixteen; Elizabeth, a girl of eighteen, and Hopestill, of fourteen; and three
children--William, twelve; Eleazer, eleven; and Bethiah, two. With them came one
of the three married daughters, Deborah Johnson. Hannah How joined them soon
after. The records are incomplete so we cannot tell how many children the
married daughters brought with them, but Hannah had three at all events.
Only John and Joanna were missing. Joanna had married Abraham
43
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
Williams and lived in Cambridge. One other defection came in the fall when
Richard married Mary Moores of Sudbury and returned there, his Marlborough grant
reverting to Samuel. The loss was balanced later by Joanna and her husband and a
child or two joining the plantation.
Richard's marriage was followed in a few months by the marriage of Elizabeth to
John Howe, Jr., son of John Howe--the latter, like Ward, being one of the
founders of both Sudbury and Marlborough.
The total number of residents, including children, was about a hundred.
Ward's big house-lot was excellently situated. Its northeast corner faced the
settlement's first meeting- house, soon after erected, and the town's main read
was laid out to run along its northern boundary. Opposite, across the man road,
west of the meeting-house, was the minister's plot.
The meeting-house was built just within the southerly end of the Indian
planting-field before title to its site had been secured, and the purchase of
the site from an Indian by the name of Anamaks provided only a bare ten feet of
ground around the building, so Ward deeded to the town about half an acre of
that part of his house-lot directly opposite.
The town "gratefully accepted" and ordered
"first yt the sd William Ward shall have liberty to cutt & carry away all the wood & timber that is upon ye same: 2ly That hee shall bee satisfyed to his content in any other part of the Towne (not yett granted) in liew thereof: & 3ly it is ordrd that this peice of Land now by him surrendred into the Towns hands as before sd shall lye for A perpetuall common or Highway not to bee taken upp by any, or othrwaise disposed of, without the consent of every Proprietor that hath Towne Rights."
This plot is part of the present High School Common. The house that Ward
built was near the end of the present Hayden Street, a few steps from the
library, where the home of Mr. John E. Hayes now stands (see the map opposite).
Its site was selected because of an abundant spring near by.
A much more commodious dwelling it was than the first log cabin in Sudbury.
Similar rough-hewn logs formed its frame, but it was shingle-roofed, clapboarded
outside, and boarded within, contained several rooms, and had a cellar.
The fields behind are now Marlborough property and are being converted into the
town's fine new recreation center--with running track, football gridiron,
baseball diamonds, &c.--named "The Artemas Ward Playground" in
joint memory of General Artemas Ward, the great grandson of
44
FOUNDING A SECOND TOWNSHIP
William Ward, and of his great-grandson and namesake, Mr. Artemas Ward, the
publisher of the volume.
As would be expected, Ward was prominent in Marlborough affairs. He was
continuously a selectman, and a deacon of the church from the time of its
organization, and his house was frequently chosen for the midweek meetings which
became a feature of the township's religious life.
The deacons constituted a general committee for the management of church affairs
and to assist the minister in his duties, one of them taking his place when he
was ill or absent. During divine service they sat in a special pew near the
pulpit.
Ward probably held other township offices, but the records from 1665 to 1739
disappeared many years ago.
He was also frequently selected to represent Marlborough on the county grand
jury, and in 1666 was again in Boston as a deputy.
The years which had seen the confirmation of the new home of the Ward family and
their removal thither, gave birth also to happenings of wide significance on
both sides of the ocean--the passing if the friendly Cromwell government on the
triumphant return of Charles II, and the death of Massasoit, the first
influential Indian friend of the white man in New England.
The restoration of the Stuart monarchy gravely imperiled the practical
independence which Massachusetts had arrogated to herself, for popular revulsion
had suffocated Puritanism in England and there remained no widespread or
effective sympathy with her aims.
Numerous charges lay against the colony: her encroachments northward in
territory claimed by heirs of Gorges and Mason; her limitation of the suffrage;
her frequent assumption of the place of source in allegiance, laws, and writs;
her protection of the regicides; her disputes with other colonies; and her
disregard of the Navigation Acts designed to control the trade of the empire.
Many of the London merchants who had hitherto held their influence in favor of
Mew England, now turned their faces away--in jealousy of the trade that
Massachusetts was doing with other countries in violation of the Navigation
Acts.
To meet these conditions was no longer an undivided front. Puritanism retained
ascendancy in the colony but observers could note the rising of the
"English party" tide. The older towns had developed a crop of
well-to-do families who leaned rather towards England and memories or dreams of
its wider social life than to the young commonwealth rising directly around
them.
45
THE WILLIAM WARD GENEALOGY
And others, though colonial in thought, were afraid to risk their worldly
goods in controversy with Great Britain.
The politically dissatisfied, also, knew that their appeals against
Congregational rule would now fall on willing ears.
Massachusetts, however, "avoided and protracted" and--aided by English
local conditions, Charles personal pursuits, and the Dutch wars--was able to
postpone the issue.
The establishment of Marlborough involved the same problems of settlement and
the same labor in highways, fencing, and other public improvements as had the
development of Sudbury. The experience that the latter township had given should
have made the new project progress smoothly, but there was a lack of the harmony
which had marked Sudbury's pioneer days. Factional fights divided the
inhabitants--with accusations and counter- charges over the failure, or alleged
failure, to pay rates and perf