Ancestors

Dea. William Ward

d. 1687 · England → Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts → Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Died 1687
Children include Increase

He was at Sudbury when the town was laid out in 1639, with a first wife's children and a second wife, and he became one of its leading men: a freeman in 1643, its deputy to the General Court in 1644, chairman of the selectmen for several years. In 1656 he was one of the thirteen who told the court that their children were grown and their cattle were many and Sudbury was straitened, and asked for a plantation eight miles to the west. When Marlborough was incorporated in 1660 he moved there, was chosen the first deacon of its church, and built on a fifty acre house lot across the road from the meeting house.

In King Philip's War the Indians burned his buildings, destroyed his cattle, and shot his son Eleazer dead at noon on the road. He made his will in April 1686, "by reason of my great age and the infirmaties thereof, being sensible of approaching death," and asked his sons John and Increase and his son in law Abraham Williams to be helpful to his wife. He died at Marlborough on 10 August 1687. The town record does not give his age, and his descendant who compiled the family supposed it to be eighty five or ninety.

Children

Increase Ward (1644-1690)

Sources

ANDREW HENSHAW WARD, Ward Family: Descendants of William Ward, who settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1639 (Boston, 1851), the introduction and families (1) and (10). INCREASE WARD, family (10): "INCREASE WARD, [11.10] m. Record ___ and resided at Marlboro', that part now Northboro', his farm was by the river, where he had a saw mill, perhaps where, or near where, are now cotton factories, he d. Aug. 4, 1690, aged 46; and his wid. Record, July 26, 1726. They had, 75. 1 Tabitha, b. May 16, 1675, m. Samuel Fay. 76. 2 Record, Jan. 28, 1677, m. Thomas Newton. 77. 3 Rebecca, 1678, d. July 8, 1698. 78. 4 Increase, m. Ruth Fay. 79. 5 Eleazer, Sept. 12, 1681, d. unm. Sept 8, 1708. 80. 6 Thomas, 1684, d. unm. at Plainfield, Ct., Aug. 1747." Increase himself is child ten of William Ward: "11. 10 Increase, Feb. 22, 1644, m. Record." WILLIAM WARD, from the introduction: "William Ward was made freeman in 1643; represented Sudbury in the General Court in 1644, and was several years Chairman of the selectmen, as he was in 1660, when he removed from that town." He was one of the thirteen Sudbury petitioners of 1656 for the plantation that became Marlborough, "in that year William Ward removed there from Sudbury, and was chosen deacon of the church when first organized there, the house lots ranged from fifteen to fifty acres each, his was a fifty acre lot, situated on the South side of the road and nearly opposite the site of the first Meeting house, he built and resided upon it." "William Ward, in common with others, endured great hardships and sustained great losses by Indian hostilities; more especially in the time of King Phillip's war in 1675-6, when his buildings were fired, his cattle destroyed, and one of his sons slain by the enemy. He died at Marlborough, Aug. 10, 1687; the record there does not state his age, his age is supposed to have been eighty five or ninety; probably it was the latter." HIS WILL, dated "the sixth of April, in the year of our Lord Christ, one thousand six hundred and eighty-six," "wherein he says, 'enjoying through God's mercy the entireness of my understanding; but by reason of my great age and the infirmaties thereof, being sensible of approaching death, do make this my last will,' appoints his 'loving wife, Elizabeth, sole executrix;' gives liberally to her, and requests his 'sons, John Ward, Increase Ward, and son-in-law, Abraham Williams, to be helpful to his wife, as occasion may require;' gives 'to all my own children, viz. all my sons and daughters, which I have by my former wife, and all that I have surviving by my present wife.'" Fourteen children, so a first wife in England and Elizabeth after her. Increase, born 1644, is Elizabeth's. ELIZABETH: "His widow, when past her seventy-fourth year, made several journies to Boston, as appears by the Probate records there, before she effected a settlement of his estate with the exorbitant and tyrannical Andros, Governor, Judge of Probate, &c. Considering the distance she resided from Boston, exceeding thirty miles, much of the way a wilderness frequented by lurking savages, a bridle way her road, and on which one of her sons had been a few years before shot down by the enemy at noon day, she must have been a person of great fortitude." "She died at Marlborough, where, some years since, her grave stone was standing, on which was an inscription as follows: 'Here lyes the body of Elizabeth Ward, the servant of the Lord, deceased in 87 year of her age, Dec. ye 9, in the year of our Lord 1700.'"

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Cite: Heirology, "Dea. William Ward (d. 1687)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/dea-william-ward-1687-d3dbea.