Rev. John Ward

Notes:

Described in the ODNB entry on his son Samuel Ward as "a man of 'more ancientry than estate'", and in the entry on his son Nathaniel as "lecturer successively of Haverhill, Writtle in Essex, and Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk".

Family/Spouse: Susan. Susan died after 1638. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Samuel Waite. Samuel was born in of Wethersfield, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1578
• Alternate death: Bef Oct 1652

Notes:

Emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634; returned permanently to England in the winter of 1646-47.

From Wikipedia:

Nathaniel Ward (1578 - October 1652) was a Puritan clergyman and pamphleteer in England and Massachusetts. He wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641.

A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. He studied law and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University in 1603. He practised as a barrister and travelled in continental Europe. In Heidelberg he met a German Protestant reformer, David Pareus, who persuaded him to enter the ministry. In 1618 he was a chaplain to a company of English merchants at Elbing, in Prussia. He returned to England and in 1628 he was appointed rector of Stondon Massey in Essex. He was soon recognised as one of the foremost Puritan ministers in Essex, and so in 1631 was reprimanded by the Bishop of London, William Laud. Although he escaped excommunication, in 1633 he was dismissed for his Puritan beliefs. (Ward's two brothers also suffered for their non-conformity.)

In 1634 Ward emigrated to Massachusetts and became a minister in Ipswich for two years. He then resigned because of ill-health. While still living in Ipswich, he wrote for the colony of Massachusetts The Body of Liberties, legal code, which was adopted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first code of laws established in New England. The Body of Liberties defined liberty in terms that were advanced in their day, establishing a code of fundamental principles based on common law, the Magna Carta and the Old Testament. However, Ward believed in theocracy rather than democracy. One of his epigrams was:

The upper world shall Rule,
While Stars will run their race:
The nether world obey,
While People keep their place.

Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Some have said that The Body of Liberties began the American tradition of liberty, leading eventually to the United States Constitution.

In 1645 Ward began his second book, The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America. This was published in England in January, 1646–1647, before Ward's return there, under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard. Three other editions, with important additions and changes, soon followed. The Simple Cobbler is a small book, which "in spite of its bitterness, and its lack of toleration" is "full of quaint originality, grim humor and power", according to the anthology Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Transplanting of Culture 1607–1650 (1903).

According to the anthology, the book is "probably the most interesting literary performance" in the first half of the 17th century in the English colonies that later became the United States. The book was later reprinted in 1713 and 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts.

He also wrote several religious-political pamphlets.

At the end of the English Civil War, when Puritan beliefs were acceptable, Ward returned to England. Ward became the minister of the church at Shenfield in Essex and died shortly after in Shenfield.

Nathaniel married Elizabeth before 1607. Elizabeth died about 1634. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Robert Lord on 11 Nov 1630 in Finchingfield, Essex, England. Robert was born about 1603; died on 21 Aug 1683 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to Genealogical Data Relating to the Ancestry and Descendants of William Hills, etc. (citation details below), he probably arrived on the Susan and Ellen in 1638.

He was Malden's representative to the House of Deputies from 1666 to 1685, and was Speaker of the House in 1684.

John married Mary Hills before 1650. Mary (daughter of Joseph Hills and Rose Clarke) was born before 13 Nov 1625; was christened on 13 Nov 1625 in Great Burstead, Essex, England; died on 25 Nov 1674 in Malden, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In addition to being a third-generation minister, he was also a physician.

John married Alice before 1640. Alice was born about 1612; died on 24 Mar 1680 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Sarah Lord Wilson was arrested with several others after a 'touch test' in Andover on 7 Sep 1692 that was conducted under the auspices of the Rev. Thomas Barnard. Her 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, was likewise arrested. Both Sarah and her daughter, Sarah, spent several weeks imprisoned (hellishly). Sarah's son, John, married the granddaughter of Samuel Wardwell. The Sarahs were released on bond and escaped being hanged; however, she and her daughter endured the unpleasant nature of prison life. They appeared in the Superior Court of the Judicature at Ipswich and were cleared in May 1693." [John M. Switlik, citation details below]

Sarah married Joseph Wilson on 24 Apr 1678 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Joseph (son of William Wilson and Patience Grindall) was born about 8 Nov 1642 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; was christened on 13 Nov 1642 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died on 2 Apr 1718 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft Jun 1732

Notes:

Several respectable sources, including the New England Early Families Study Project (citation details below) and The Snow-Estes Ancestry (citation details below), list her as a daughter of Capt. John Waite and Mary Hills. Notably, Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton IV does not.

Sarah married Nathaniel Stone on 25 Apr 1684 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Nathaniel (son of John Stone and Anne) was born on 11 May 1660 in Near Sudbury, in the region that later became Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died between 23 Jun 1732 and 3 Nov 1732 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 9 Apr 1647

Elizabeth married Nathaniel Saltonstall on 28 Dec 1663 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts. Nathaniel (son of Maj. Richard Saltonstall and Muriel Gurdon) was born about 1639 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 21 May 1707 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge on 13 Jun 1672. Benjamin (son of Rev. John Woodbridge and Mercy Dudley) was born about 1648; died on 15 Jan 1710 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Andover vital records consistently spell his surname "Willson."

Of their fourteen children, two (Mercy, eldest, and John, third) survived to adulthood. Two died in infancy; eight died in November 1738 of the "throat distemper" epidemic that swept Essex County from 1735 to 1740, and their two last children died in October 1747, ages six and eight.

John married Mercy Wright on 21 Jun 1716 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Mercy (daughter of John Wright and Mercy Wardwell) died on 14 Feb 1759 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Ebenezer married Prudence Pratt on 10 May 1721 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Prudence (daughter of Joseph Pratt and Hannah Provender) was born on 22 Apr 1698 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Rev. Rowland Cotton in Sep 1692 in z. Rowland (son of Rev. John Cotton and Joanna Rossiter) was born on 27 Dec 1667 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony; died on 18 Mar 1722 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Graduated Harvard 1701. Ordained first minister at East Hartford, 30 Mar 1705.

Samuel married Mabel Russell on 9 Dec 1707. Mabel (daughter of Rev. Daniel Russell and Mehitable Wyllys) was born in 1678; died on 10 May 1730 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 21 Aug 1717

Mercy married Simon Daby on 22 Jan 1738. Simon (son of John Daby and Hannah Butterick) was born on 27 Feb 1714 in Stow, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 18 Dec 1802 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts; was buried in Harvard Center Cemetery, Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Natick, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Silas married Elizabeth Russell on 25 Jan 1750 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Deacon Jonathan Russell and Mary Coolidge) was born on 7 Oct 1730 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died in 1816 in Shoreham, Addison, Vermont. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joanna married Rev. John Brown in 1719 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts. John (son of Ichabod Brown and Martha Woodbury) was born on 1 Nov 1696 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 2 Dec 1742 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Rev. Ephraim Little. Ephraim (son of David Little and Elizabeth Southworth) was born in 1707; died in 1787. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Or "John Daby".

Many online sources give this John Darby/Daby, husband of Sarah Hopgood, a birth date of 24 Mar 1741, and show him as a son of Simon Daby (1715-1802) and Mercy Wilson (1717-1751). It's chronologically and geographically plausible. And this John and Sarah did in fact name their first child Simon (b. 20 May 1765). But there are problems with it.

Henry Stedman Nourse's 1894 History of the Town of Harvard, Massachusetts: 1732-1893, in his list of the offspring of John Daby and Sarah Hopgood, calls this John Daby "John, Jr.". Warren Hapgood's 1898 The Hapgood Family (citation details below) also calls the husband of Lt. Shadrach Hopgood's daughter Sarah "John Darby, Jr."

And according to Viola A. Derby Bromley's 1905 Derby Genealogy, the John Darby/Daby who married Sarah Hopgood was born "about 1740", a younger son of John Daby (1688-1769) by his wife Hannah (1685-1744). In her reckoning, the John Darby/Daby who was born 24 Mar 1741 to Simon Daby and Mercy Wilson married a Dinah Willard.

Finally, the 1917 Vital Records of Harvard, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, in its register of marriages, also calls the John Daby who married Sarah Hopgood "John Jr." (Interestingly, it also calls the John Darby who married Dinah Willard "John Jr.", which creates another problem for Derby Genealogy.)

Of course, the problem with John Daby and Hannah (now known to have been Hannah Butterick) being the parents of the John Daby/Darby who married Sarah Hopgood is obvious. If John and Hannah's birthdates are as shown in the town records of Harvard, this supposed "John Darby, Jr.", born about 1740, would have been born when his father was 52 and his mother was 55. This is highly implausible. According to Wikipedia, in the United States between 1997 and 1999, only 194 women gave birth aged 55 or over. That's out of a population of about 280,000,000. The population of New England in 1740 was about one million.

The range of birthdates shown by Bromley for the other children of John and Hannah is 1712 to 1722. It's hard to avoid the suspicion that Bromley was aware that prior sources (Nourse, Hapgood, Harvard vital records) all called the husband of Sarah Hopgood "John, Jr.", and simply parked him as a child of John and Hannah because there were no more plausible local Johns Darby/Daby for him to be the offspring of.

There's little question that Simon and Mercy Daby/Darby had a son John who was born 24 Mar 1741. The Harvard vital records show a John Daby, "s. of Simon and Marcey, Mar. 24, 1741." Nourse lists, in his register of births, John Daby, born "March 24, 1741", among "The Children of Simon and Mercy."

It's also worth noting that the Harvard vital records show no birth of any John Darby, Daby, or Derby to John and Hannah Darby, Daby, or Derby.

Our suspicion is that the John Darby/Daby who married Sarah Hopgood was in fact a son of Simon Daby and Mercy Wilson, just as geography, chronology, and onomastics suggest, and that the idea that he was a "Jr." was introduced by an error in transcription somewhere along the way. We'd like to see the actual materials from which the 1917 Harvard vital records book was transcribed. But suspicion is not evidence.

UPDATE, 14 Feb 2016: ancestry.com has a handwritten record of Harvard, Massachusetts births, on which we see, under "Daby," "John s of Simon and Mercy" born 24 Mar 1741. No "Jr." in sight.

John married Sarah Hopgood on 17 Jan 1765 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of Lt. Shadrach Hopgood and Elizabeth Weatherbee) was born on 16 Jun 1744 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Silas married Jennet Twitchell on 9 Jan 1781 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Jennet (daughter of Deacon Jonathan Twitchell and Deborah Bullard) was born on 5 Nov 1760 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 13 Jun 1816 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John Wingate Thornton calls her merely "a dau." of "Rev. J. Brown, of Haverhill" and his wife Joanna Cotton, but he is specific that she was the wife of "Rev. Edw. Brooks of North Yarmouth, Me."

Abigail married Rev. Edward Brooks in Sep 1764. Edward (son of Samuel Brooks and Mary Boutwell) was born on 31 Oct 1733 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; was christened on 4 Nov 1733; died on 6 May 1781 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lemuel Dickinson. Lemuel (son of Col. John Dickinson and Mary Coleman) was born in 1753 in Hatfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts; died in 1835 in Denmark, Lewis, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also known as Sarah (or Sally) Daby.

Sarah married Josiah Stone on 13 Sep 1797 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. Josiah (son of Lt. James Stone and Deborah Nutting) was born on 1 Apr 1771 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Gregory Stone Genealogy (citation details below):

In early life [he] exhibited natural capacity and desire for learning, and after preparatory study under Rev. Joseph Wheaton of Holliston and Rev. Charles Train of Framingham, he was admitted to Brown University where he graduated A.B. in 1820 and A.M. in 1822. He then took up medical studies under Dr. John B. Kittredge of Framingham, completing them at the Harvard Medical School where he received the degree of M.D. in 1824. Soon afterwards he settled in Walpole, Mass., where he practiced his profession over forty years, until within a short time of his decease, 13 Aug. 1869, in his seventy-second year.

Dr. Stone was a skilful, successful, and popular family physician, and obtained an extensive practice in Walpole and the surrounding towns; and his high character, abilities, geniality, and sympathetic disposition secured for him the confidence, esteem, and affection of a large circle of patients. While assiduously and faithfully devoted to the duties of his profession, he was also much interested in education, labored for the improvement of the schools, and was one of the earliest open advocates of temperance during the first agitation on this subject in Massachusetts about 1830. He was a man of calm judgment, firm convictions, and scholarly tastes. In politics he was long a conservative adherent of the Whig party, and in religion was a consistent member of the Unitarian church and a constant attendant at its public worship. For some years he was a councillor of the Massachusetts Medical Society and president of the Norfolk District Medical Society.

Ebenezer married Elizabeth Holbrook Hawes on 23 Nov 1831 in Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of John Holbrook Hawes and Achsah Barber) was born on 10 May 1809 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died on 18 Aug 1860 in Walpole, Norfolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Samuel Gray on 25 Apr 1799. Samuel (son of Abraham Gray and Lydia Calley) was born on 2 Aug 1760; was christened on 10 Aug 1760 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 21 Jan 1816 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Owner of the first steamboat to run the St. Lawrence rapids.

Horace married Mercy Amelia Bigelow on 12 May 1823. Mercy (daughter of Abijah Bigelow and Mercy Amelia Spring) was born on 4 Oct 1794 in Waltham, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died in 1880. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]