Wayne Co, Mo.--Jacob Huggins

  Although it's already quite well-known that Meshach Ward's supposed sister, Susanna Ward married Jacob Huggins Jr back in Caswell Co, NC, I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss an alternate view of the Huggins' origins.
   After Jacob Jr died, we can see Susanna living in Meshach's household in Wayne Co.  She's the only other Ward there that Orange Co genealogists accept is a sibling of his.  None of the others frequently claimed make any real sense in terms of Meshach's origins.  Jacob Jr grew up next door to John Ward in Orange Co.   His father, Jacob Sr, held land bordering John's land right near the Caswell border.  In fact, many of the Wards were known members of a church just over the county line in Caswell, so this is likely the reason that you see Jacob Huggins Jr and Susanna Ward being married in that county.  Here you can see Jacob Sr selling a part of his land shortly before his death.  Note the line that mentions his neighbor, John Ward, in the middle of the page:

                                               

Mostly what I wanted to show here was that not only are Meshach and Susanna closely associated with the John Ward family of Orange Co.--but also Susanna actually married the son of John Ward's next door neighbor!

   Jacob's father names his son in his will a few years later.  Sadly, though, Jacob and Susanna lost their inherited land in 1818 to a Sheriff's sale, when they failed to pay their taxes.

   But what about the Huggins' whereabouts before they moved to Orange Co?  If you look online, pretty much all you will see is that Jacob Sr came from Onslow Co NC.  And, it's true, there are records of a Jacob Huggins over in that area.  However, here's the alternate case that Cluster Theory would present:

   Below is a page from the transcribed 1737 Baltimore Co tax list.  Notice in the upper part of the left column you will see the name of John Huggins.  About 10 lines below him is John Ward Jr's father-in-law, Sutton Sicklemore.
                              

   On the prior page, there is Richard Ward showing "At Joseph Wards."  Since there is only one poll assessed, we can take this as a clue that Joseph was over taxable age by this time.  John Ward is nearby, as are the ancestors of Sutton Ward's wife, the Crabtrees.

      If you then look in the very same Parish register back in Baltimore that contains so many Ward birth and wedding records, you will find the following entry:                          
   JACOB HUGGINS, son of John Jr. and Mary, born July 20, 1739.

   I don't know volumes about the Onslow NC stuff, but any Huggins descendent might want to consider that there was a Jacob Huggins born in Baltimore near the Wards--and that a Jacob Huggins ended up living next to the descendents of these very same Wards in Orange Co. The age and circumstances of this Jacob Huggins fit quite well.

   (Worth considering-- A man named Samuel Taulbee was also a resident of Baltimore Co.  His daughter, Ann, married William Huggins on Dec 19, 1754 there. Samuel Taulbee will also move to Orange Co and leave a will in 1791....)



  
   

Back to Baltimore--Who were Sarah Burrough's parents?

  There is a running joke in the Ward line about their predilection for marrying first cousins.  As you will see, we have the Sicklemores to thank:

   In November, 1705, Samuel Sicklemore's daughter, Elizabeth, married a man named John Brown. After having three sons, John died at an early age sometime in 1715.  By March 1716 Elizabeth had remarried...
   John Brown's father, Thomas, died a number of years earlier.  Margaret Brown, John's mother, then remarried to a man named Andrew Drew.  The latter died about 1720, predeceasing Margaret by about a year.  Fortunately she made her own will at that time.  A key line mentions her grandson, Thomas "son of John Brown" and then she goes on to mention Elizabeth "my daughter-in-law, wife of Richard Burrough."
   Although you will see it posted on the web that Richard Burrough married Elizabeth Brown (and that's true), this will shows us that Elizabeth Brown was initially Elizabeth Sicklemore.
   If you go back to the previous posting and look again at the document involving Joseph Ward and Robert Cutchen, you'll see the two witnesses are Richard Burrough and Archibald Buchanan.  The latter was the executor of Margaret Brown Drew's estate.
   It's a very tight cluster going on here.  Given that, and the fact that Richard Burrough appears on several documents involving Sicklemores and/or Wards, it would seem pretty clear that he's the main 'suspect' for being Sarah Burrough's father--even though, Sarah is not mentioned in his will several decades later.  For one thing, there is no evidence found of any other Burroughs in Baltimore Co at that time.  And then there's the name, Sarah, itself--remember, Richard Burrough's mother-in-law was Sarah Sicklemore.
   Certainly there's always the remote possibility that Richard brought in a unknown niece from St Mary's  Co Md (his place of origin) and introduced her to John Ward Sr.  But, given all the family associations going on in Baltimore, the time frame, and the name "Sarah," we think it quite reasonable to conclude that Sarah Burrough was the daughter of Richard Burrough and Elizabeth Sicklemore Brown Burrough.
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From there, everything seems pretty straightforward--that is, until you start to consider the implications, not to mention attempt to put all this in your family tree. 

   So we've got:

   John Ward Sr marries Sarah Burrough--her mother is Elizabeth Sicklemore.

   Elizabeth Sicklemore is the older sister of Sutton Sicklemore.

   Sutton Sicklemore's daughter, Hannah, marries John Ward Jr.

   Uh oh...

   Yep,  John Ward Jr has just married his grandmother's niece.

   And so when people are asking you why the Wards so frequently married first cousins, just look them in the eye and blame it all on the Sicklemores!

(Another thing worth noting:  one son of John Brown and Elizabeth Sicklemore Brown was named Augustus Brown.   In April, 1729 he married Ann Cutchen--sister of Elizabeth Cutchen who was the wife of Richard Perkins mentioned in the previous post.  The folks really liked to keep it "all in the family.")

The Wayne Co Miracle

  Hopefully, I've done enough so far to convince you that the two Ward lines in Wayne Co. Mo. aren't related.  However....

   Recently, I was going back through Wayne Co census records to see if we could pinpoint any other family members from Orange Co who moved there (a few were discovered).  One name jammed in there one page between the two Ward clans was Perkins.  I started 'crunching' that name backwards.  When I saw online that this family started out from Baltimore Co MD, I cracked a wry smile, laughed, and decided to trace them back 'just for kicks.'
   An hour later I was left stunned and speechless.
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   After all, it was the Perkins who first led the way into Wayne Co from Lincoln Co.
   It was the Perkins who intermarried with the Wards of Lincoln Co a number of times.
   And...it was the Perkins who came to Lincoln Co from Baltimore--namely Richard Perkins Jr.

    Although it was most certainly time to make public all the recent findings about the heritage of John Ward of Orange Co. NC, the astute reader will discern that absolutely every posting so far on this website has all been leading up to this moment:

   Richard Perkins was born in 1713 in Baltimore Co.  Certainly by 1765 he starts showing up in NC records.  Eventually settling in Lincoln Co, he died in at the age of 76 in 1789, when in a drunken state he was defenestrated from the second floor of the county court house.
   The Perkins line continued on in Lincoln Co, eventually intermarrying with the Wards there a number of times.  For example, Jesse Perkins daughter, Rebecca, would go on to marry John Ward in that county.

   Stunningly, the connection we're discussing begins all the way back in 1702!  Note the following document.  This is the very end of a deed where Richard Perkins Sr is selling some land in Baltimore. Be sure to look at the signature in the very bottom left corner:

                                                 

                 


   Before Richard Jr left Baltimore he married Elizabeth Cutchin/Gudgeon.   We've already seen that name.  In this case, she turns out to be the daughter of Robert Cutchin.  And, as we have seen:
   Robert Cutchin is the brother-in-law of Samuel Sicklemore
   This means that Elizabeth Cutchin Perkins is the first cousin of Samuel's son, Sutton Sicklemore
   ....and Sutton Sicklemore is the father-in-law of John Ward, the man who starts the line in Orange Co. NC.

    But, the Wards were involved with these Cutchins back then, as well.  Elizabeth Cutchin Perkins' father had a debt to settle with Joseph Ward, himself!

                                               

  And so, if anything drew the Orange Co Wards to Wayne Co. Mo it wasn't another set of Wards--rather it was the Perkins family, who were close relations of  Hannah Sicklemore Ward (John Ward Jr's wife).  As we can further see, Richard Perkins Jr's father-in-law had financial dealings with John Ward Jr's grandfather back in Baltimore Co.

   The Wards of Orange Co are related to the Perkins....and the Perkins intermarried with another faction of Wards in Lincoln Co.  It could just as easily have been any other surname, but in a 10,000 to 1 shot, the Perkins just happened to intermarry with a family named Ward.
    Add to that Meshach Ward's dubious assertion of his parents' names in his biography and you can see why we genealogists have been left chasing our tails ever since.

   My desire is that the foregoing posts begin to dissolve all the fog around Wayne Co genealogy.  I'm certainly open to any questions, comments, corrections, additions....you name it.  In fact, I'm asking for them.
   Hopefully, what's been written so far on this website can be a new start...
                                                                                               (Kevin)
                                                
                                    

The Shadrach Ward Papers

   By 1850, you can see two Andrew Wards in Wayne Co. Mo.  This seems to have contributed to a lot of confusion.  Ellinghouse has written the following:
  Raney Ward (1819-1863), died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp in Jackson, Mississippi, while serving in the Thirty-First Missouri Infantry.  He resided in 1850 in the Wayne County home of Andrew J Ward, probably a cousin.  Later married, his widow, Rutha, was a daughter of Luke and Nancy (Bland) White, wed in 1813 in adjoining Chatham County.

  This particular Andrew Ward was no cousin.  And he wasn't from Lincoln Co. NC.  He was, in fact, Raney Ward's brother.  Both were sons of Shadrach Ward.  Andrew Ward married Nancy White back in Guilford Co in the 1840s.  Raney accompanied them to Wayne Co and, eventually, married Nancy's sister, Ruth.
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  As previously mentioned, there is a collection of Shad Ward's letters in the Special Collections Dept. at Duke.
  There are a number of letters (mostly written by Raney) from Wayne Co to Shadrach in that file.  So you can get a taste of them, I'm posting the first page of one written a just over a year after Andrew died:

                                                  

  As you can see, Raney discusses things like the disposition of brother Andrew's children.  In his letters, he might occasionally mention someone known from back home--in this case Sela Edwards--and then, in several letters he gives account of Meshach Ward.
   In none of the letters back to Orange Co is there ever a mention of any other Wards living in Wayne Co.   

   The Wards from Orange Co, NC are as follows:
   Meshach Ward--son of unknown
   Andrew Ward--son of Shadrach Ward and Delilah Compton Ward
   Raney Ward--son of Shadrach Ward and Delilah Compton Ward

  A fourth, Yancey Ward, will eventually turn up in Wayne Co.  We'll have to deal with him (and his outrageous biography!) another time...
   Also worth noting is that another of Shad's sons, John A Ward, lived briefly in the county for a time in the mid-1850s.  He is usually referred to by his middle name, Alvis.

                                                                                       (Kevin)

Two lines of Wards

  While I'm certainly no expert on the Lincoln Co. NC Wards, I've seen enough good research about them to understand something of their origins.  Cletis Ellinghouse wrote the following in one of his books:

  "It appears that Johann Carl "Charles" Ward was the granddaddy of the Wayne County families....From what little is known of him, this much is certain: he was married in 1760 Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and lived there, across the Delaware River from Warren County, New Jersey, before moving south about 1773 into North Carolina where, a short time later, he became widely known as a partisan in the Revolutionary War."

   Researchers note that church records state he was married in 1760 to an Anna Catherine Kale--who had been born in Germany in 1739.  Reported names of their children also tend to show Germanic origins: Conrad, Frederick, Melger, Balser/Paulser, etc.
   Further, most reports show that Johann Ward doesn't arrive in Northampton Co until around the mid-1740s.
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   So, how does this compare to the Orange Co. NC Wards?
   As we have shown, Joseph Ward, progenitor of these Wards was clearly in the Colonies by 1707--and likely earlier.  All of his early associations are with well-known former residents of the UK  In many cases, these are names of 'high-flyers' like Sicklemore, Wriothesley and Day.  There are other known UK families like the Gudgeons, Ewings and Groomes as well.  In fact, research in the area of Ipswich has turned up several instances of the names Sicklemore and Ward on the same document.
   Joseph Ward's Joppa Inn looked out across the street at the Episcopal Church next door.  His children's birth records are in the St John's Parish records--as are his death record, along with that of son John Sr.
   The Wards of Orange Co. NC are clearly English in origin.

While I always assert that nothing is impossible when it comes to genealogy, it's pretty certain, isn't it, that these two clans of Wards are of such differing origins and backgrounds as to make it clear that the odds of their being related in any way is incredibly remote.
  It's certainly far too remote, for example, to think that a William Ward of Lincoln Co had anything to do with the Wards of Orange Co--much less to think that he somehow moved over there (married a Compton!?), died and then left a child (Meshach) to be raised there.  Also, given that he's the supposed father of a number of other Wards who ended up in Wayne Co, this seems even more improbable that only one of his sons would stay in Orange, while the others were raised back in Lincoln Co.
   None of it makes any sense.  What's to blame here?   The biographical entry for Meshach Ward, that's what.  It's been taken as truthful...and from there, many attempts have been made to 'force' things to fit.  The sad fact is, they don't.
                                                                          (Kevin)

"They all served under Washington....and at Yorktown"

  This is a phrase that still sticks in my mind, told to me by a veteran genealogist.
   These sorts of regional biographies are notorious for their fabrications and exaggerations.  One classic example is that of William Clenny--next door neighbor of Caleb Wilson in Orange Co NC.  William Clenny sold his land in 1822 and moved to Greene Co, IN.  Caleb was, in fact, the witness for the deed.  Meshach would have known this guy very well.  The following is from Biographical memoirs of Greene County, Ind.:

William Clenny--
the father of "Alec" Clenny, who lived and died north of Bloomfield, was a Virginian and fought in the Revolution with the highest and best leaders—both Washington and Greene. . Washington* always said if he was lost he wanted Greene put in his place .
    Mr. Clenny was at the closing scene of Yorktown. He remembered well the names of the French officers who served there, and to hear him pronounce them as he did was a rich literary treat to any one. He was an excellent citizen all his long life and made his own living by patient, useful labor, tanned his own leather, made his own and family's shoes, raised wool, cotton and flax, of which their clothes were made, and made his hand-mill on which was ground their breadstuff. He had an almost matchless figure, showing an exquisite model of perfect manhood, rugged and stalwart. In his last years he was entirely blind. His dust lies in the Bloomfield cemetery.

But, then  there is Clenny's own Revolutionary War pension application.  First of all it clearly shows what we already know, that Clenny was born in Delaware and moved to Orange Co NC and lived there over 40 years before moving to Indiana.  He never lived in Virginia at all--at least not for any discernible length of time.
  Secondly, you can see his service at the tail part of the War (in his own words)--while the Battle of Yorktown was going on, Clenny was serving in the Carolinas and Georgia!

  I know this is just one example (of many that I've seen over the years), but I hope it at least gives some indication of just how inaccurate regional biographies can be.
   And now, back to Wayne Co....
                                                                                        (Kevin)

Meshach Ward

According to Meshach Ward of Wayne Co. Mo., he was born in Orange Co. NC.    As previously mentioned, nobody knows who his parents were--that is unless you want to go with the entry in the well-known book of regional biography:

                         

  This is the entry that has caused so much trouble.  To be sure, Meshach was apprenticed out to Caleb Wilson in Orange Co NC in 1816.  You can see that bond here:
                                                  

 1) Caleb Wilson is well-known in Orange Co genealogy.  At this time he lived in the Union Ridge area--a couple of miles to the West of where the main body of Wards were living.  He would eventually sell out and move back a bit east to live right by the Wards.
  2)  All the Orange Co apprentice bonds have been surveyed.  Meshach is the only Ward to ever have been apprenticed.
  3) There is no wedding bond for Meshach's marriage.  But there is really no reason to doubt the truth of who he married.  Caleb Wilson's niece is accepted by Orange Co genealogists.  When Caleb Wilson sold out his land in the Union Ridge area, much of it went to his brother.  This is quite possibly Elizabeth's father.
  4) What isn't accepted by Orange Co genealogists is 'the rest of the story...'
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   The progenitor of the Compton line in Orange Co NC is Aquilla Compton.  He's known to have moved to Orange Co from the area of Frederick, MD, sometime around 1780.  There were no other Comptons in Orange before this time.  He bought land within 1/4 mile of John Ward's property. These Wards and Comptons intermarried heavily.
   1) Shadrach's brother, William, bought his first parcel of land from one of Aquilla's sons.
   2) While Aquilla's son, William Compton, first married John Ward's daughter, Rebecca: marriage records make it pretty clear that somehow she had died by 1792 and William Compton remarried to Mary Freeland.  In 1794, William Compton and Mary had Delilah Compton.  She went on to marry Shad:
                        Shadrach Ward married Delilah Compton in 1818.
  3) Even though there are amazing records about the Comptons, there is no record of a Delilah older than this one in Orange Co.

   So what we have is Meshach Ward spinning a story to the regional biographer.  He's totally honest about his indenture and his wife--he has to be, she's still around.  The problem is Meshach's mom and dad:

            Meshach says he's the son of William Ward and Delilah Compton.

1)  After years of acquiring just about every available record, there is no mention of a William Ward in Orange Co prior to the marriage of Shad's brother in 1811. 
2)  And this is where we go for the obvious regarding Meshach's stated parents:  William Ward is Shadrach's brother,  Delilah Compton is Shadrach's wife.  It would appear that Meshach is just borrowing the names in his story from relatives.  The 'coincidence' of names here is just a bit too much.
3)  I do realize that this still leaves open the question of declared father, William Ward, coming from the Ward cluster in Lincoln Co. NC.   We'll get to that shortly.
   But first, let's take a moment to discuss regional biographies...
   
 

The "Wayne Co Trap"

  Every Orange Co NC Ward researcher that I've talked to has fallen into it....I most certainly did.  It's Cluster Theory at its most basic.  And it's one of those rare times where that method fails.

   We all do it.  For example, we see a John Doe 3 places away from a James Doe on a census page, both show being born in the same state.  From there we just assume that they are related, right?  And 97 times out of 100 that's perfectly correct.
   How much 'stronger', then, is the likely link when in Wayne Co, Missouri, at least a dozen Ward households all show on the 1850 and 1860 census records as being near one another--and they are all from NC?!
  They've got to be related, right?

  Orange Co Ward researchers have all spent countless hours at one time or another in trying to find the connection.  In the end, everyone of them--myself, most certainly included--came away with nothing.  We all came to call it a 'trap.'  And that's how the name came about.
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  I know--and have experienced the fallout from attempting to suggest otherwise-- that once a piece of information goes 'into print' many people come to hold it true and that nothing can change their minds.  This seems to magnify in intensity when the publication is a book, rather than just an internet posting. Since the Wayne Co Ward line has been dealt with in a number of books, I know what I'm up against.
   I'm not writing to change the minds of those people--rather, my goal is to show a different version for those who still aren't convinced by what they have read.

   In that light, I'd like to approach this in two stages:
  1) To show all the reasons why the two groups of Wards in Wayne Co are NOT related.
  2) Paradoxically, to show a recent discovery that shows both groups ARE related--but not through the Ward line!

  Let's see if I can pull that off.
  We'll start with Meshach Ward....
                                                                 (Kevin)

  

 

Shadrach, William and X--Orange Co, NC

  Those familiar with the history of the Orange Co Wards know this problem all too well.  Steve Ward has already covered it nicely in his first book.
   Looking at all available records, it looks like sometime between 1800 and 1810, one or two Ward 'widows' appeared in the area.  We can see what appears to be them in the 1810 census.

   Out of this group come two well-known Wards: Shadrach and William.  A third Ward, named Joshua, makes his appearance around the same time as these two.  And then there will be a 4th one--who is currently given the name of X.  Although Joshua's parentage is not certain, we know from a few records like the 1850 census that the mother of Shad Ward was named Ruth.
  Steve deals with all of these people in his first book.  You can find out more there if you'd like.

  The main thing to note, is that since that book was written, the Shadrach Ward papers were 'discovered' in Duke University Library.  Contained in that file is a letter from Leticia Ward Barrow to 'Uncle Shad.'
She inquires about her mother's funeral, asks how grandmother is doing, etc.  She then asks about Uncle William and Aunt Anne.  
   William Ward married Anne Scott in 1811.

    Leticia was left an 'orphan' about 1823.  We can find the following entries in the Caswell Co Court records, just a mile or so North of where the Orange Co Ward's lived:

April Court 1823
   Sylvester Word (or Ward), orphan now 3 years old on 15 of May next bound to James Brown to learn the art of a planter.
   Laticia Ward orphan now age of 4 years on 4th of July next bound to James Heydon.

  To this day, we don't know the name of that missing brother.  But it's clear that since Leticia Ward was the niece of both William and Shad Ward the two men were brothers--and her dad (X) was a third brother--all sons of Ruth.

   We do know this--as Steve clearly has shown--William and Shadrach settle down right by the land of Sutton Ward and his offspring.
   Sutton's son, Thomas, bonded William's wedding.
  Shadrach bonded the wedding of Sutton's son, Archibald.
   Shad also bonded Joshua Ward's marriage.
   You can see both Shad and William witnessing many of the deeds of Sutton Ward and his children. 
 
   As Steve has noted, it's very clear that Shadrach and William were very closely related to the family of Sutton Ward.  Likely their father was Sutton's cousin.  We just don't know his name.  We can show, for instance, that other Ward cousins moved next to John/Sutton Ward from Baltimore, before heading on to other places...but, sadly, after going through almost the entire NC Archives, we still can't tell you who Shad's dad was....

   But a little bit later on, another mystery Ward appears in the records: Meshach Ward.  It would seem obvious by his name that he's somehow related to Shadrach.  But, again, there's no record of his parents. 
   Now we are headed straight into the infamous "Wayne Co Trap..."
                                                                (Kevin)
 

Back to Orange Co, NC--John Ward's daughter

   While we've already seen the will of Sutton Sicklemore that gives the name of grandson, Sutton Sicklemore Ward,  there is one other cross-check we can notice at in the family of John Ward of Orange Co.
   And that is his daughter.  First of all notice Sutton Ward's wedding bond:

    Sutton Ward m.  Nancy Crabtree 12 Mar. 1784  Bond: Ezel. Chance


Just a few months later we find this wedding bond:

  John Millington m.  Constant Ward 24 June 1784   Bond:  Ezekial Chance 

  It's not your usual naming pattern is it?  Rather than following John's line, the names are coming from wife Hannah Sicklemore's family.  As we know, Sutton Sicklemore married Constant Love in Baltimore. 

   Orange Co deeds show that bondsman Ezekiel Chance was the next-door neighbor of John Ward.  The family association between the parties in these wedding bond is one of the very few that still evades us. We still haven't encountered a definitive relationship between Ezekiel Chance and the Wards.  Perhaps they were just really good neighbors?  Or, perhaps some connection still remains hidden.  In any case, it's clear that John Ward's two eldest children carry the names of the Sutton Sicklemore and his wife--they are both named for Hannah's parents.

Sutton Sicklemore's wives

  Sutton Sicklemore first married Constant Love (what a great name!).  She was the daughter of John Love.  We know from documents that she was still around by 1744 (and likely later), but by July, 1762 Parish records show Sutton Sicklemore remarrying--this time to Prudence Hindon/Hendon. 
   It's interesting to note that Sutton makes out his will right about this time, naming Prudence.  Was this a precondition of the marriage?!  According to Barnes, Sutton appears to have died by August, 1765.

   For once, things are pretty straightforward!

Who was Samuel Sicklemore's Wife?

  The surname of Sutton Sicklemore's mother has always been a big mystery.  We know she first shows up in a deed as Samuel Sicklemore's wife in 1694.  But there are no wedding records or wills, etc that show who she was.
  But....
   Samuel Sicklemore owned many tracts of land in Baltimore Co.  One of them bore the name of Sicklemore's Dock.  In 1702, there is a deed selling Sicklemore's Dock to Robert Gudgeon/Cutchin.  The deed is signed by Samuel and Sarah signs by mark.
    Amazingly, Robert Cutchin turns around and sells the land right back to Samuel in the same year.  From there, the land is gifted to Samuel's daughter in 1711 (Her name was Hannah. As a sister of Sutton Sicklemore, it would seem obvious that Sutton's daughter, Hannah Sicklemore Ward, was named after her).  She, in turn sells it to William Demmitt in 1714.  And, by 1727, Demmitt has sold it to Nicholas Day. 
   What happens next is what only genealogists love--a land dispute.

   In June, 1728, Nicholas Day files a petition about the boundary of his newly acquired Sicklemore's Dock. 
    A book put out by the Baltimore Co Genealogical Society: Abstracts of the Baltimore County Land Commissions, 1727-1762, gives us the following summary:

 Deposition of John Fuller, 1 October 1728, age about 40: (St John's Parish) About 27 years ago Robert Cutchin told him about the boundary.
  Depostion of Thomas Cutchin, 1 October 1728, age about 51: His brother-in-law Samuel Sicklemore told him about the boundary.

   That leaves us with several possibilities:

   1)  Thomas Cutchin married Jane Hicks in Oct, 1713.  By this time Samuel Sicklemore was already gone from the county.  Some say he was dead by then, but we'll deal with that one another time.  In any case, the idea that Samuel was married to a sister of Jane Hicks is highly unlikely, since Samuel was almost as old as her father.
   2)   In that era, the term "brother-in-law" sometimes also meant what we now call a 'step-brother.'  The Gudgeons/Cutchins are very well researched.  And, even though, there is no record of a sister named Sarah, it's highly unlikely that Thomas Gudgeon's mother had previously married a Sicklemore.
   For one thing, as you will see in a later post, there just weren't many Sicklemores running around in England--it's a VERY rare name.  For another, the Gudgeons/Cutchins have been traced to Northamptonshire in the UK....while it's quite clear that the Sicklemores came from the area around Ipswich. 
  While nothing is impossible in genealogy I most certainly have found--the odds of this possibility being true are incredibly remote at best.
   3)  The simple explanation: Given all the involvement in documents between the Sicklemores and Gudgeons/Cutchins, coupled with Thomas Cutchin's statement that Samuel Sicklemore was his brother-in-law, it would seem to be pretty clear that Sarah Sicklemore was almost certainly a Cutchin.  Although some like to think so, there is never a 100% certainty in genealogy--especially not when going back this far.  In my experience, this is about as good as it gets. So we are concluding that, even though there is no other record of her:

   Samuel Sicklemore was married to Sarah Gudgeon/Cutchin.

   For those with an interest in further pursuing this line, I recommend this link to an excellent website about the Gudgeon/Cutchin family.
                                                                                  (Kevin)

The wife of John Ward of Orange Co NC

This question has perplexed us for years.  Many figured her surname was Sutton, due to the name of John's son.  However, it was the discovery of a will in Baltimore that finally answered the question.
  Below is the will of Sutton Sicklemore, written in 1762.  It answers a lot of questions:

The first thing one notices about the will is that Sutton Sicklemore lists four daughters.  The wedding records for three of them are found in the Parish records.  But the one marriage most relevant to our purpose here is not.  It is this will that gives us our only evidence for John Ward's wife.
  "And also to my daughter Hannah Ward one Shilling Sterling and no more..."

   But the will provides us much more information that this!  A well-known 'trick' of families back then was to name a son or daughter after a relative in hopes of their being included in any inheritance.  This obviously worked very well here.  You can see the following line at the end of the will:

    "...and then the whole Estate be equally divided between my two Grandsons Samuel Sicklemore Peacock and to Sutton Sicklemore Ward."

    So we now have our confirmation for Hannah being the wife of our particular John Ward:  Their son has the unusual first name of Sutton!  In addition, we get one further cross-check.  Notice the name of the other grandson (named for Sutton Sicklemore's father)--Samuel Sicklemore Peacock.  Here we can shift to Orange Co NC two decades later and find the following wedding bond:

             

  Amazingly, John Ward is co-bonding (nephew) Samuel Peacock's wedding.  Once again, notice the mark John uses--it's exactly the same as the mark that was used in Baltimore by John Ward Sr!

 We can sum up like this:

  John Ward  of Orange Co, NC was married to Hannah Sicklemore.
  John was the son of John Ward Sr and Sarah Burrough--or of Richard Ward and Mary Gross.
  The parents of John Ward Sr and Richard were Joseph and Bridgett Ward.


  Sadly, there is no evidence (so far) for Bridgett's maiden name.  But there's a lot that can be said about the Sicklemores-
                                                                                                    (Kevin)
    

The Death of John Ward Sr. and the Ward Dark Ages

   In order to save space, I'm just posting one page.  This is the tail end of the first deed and the start of the second where William Dallam (admin of John Ward) is dividing and selling John's Deer Creek land to Alexander and Daniel McComas.  It's worth noting that some of the McComas family also later came to Orange and Caswell Counties in NC as well.  (As with any document(s) on this website: anyone wanting to see the entire thing can just ask in the comments section, or email, and we will be glad to send them to you).

John leaves 4 children behind according to Parish records and Barnes:
    William   b. March 10. 1738.
     Elizabeth  b.  June 21, 1741
     John  b. Nov, 1742
     Sarah, b. 1745

  And so we can see a potential candidate for John Ward of Orange Co, NC.  born Nov. 1742.  One must note here that John Sr had a brother named Richard.  Richard also had a son named John, born in 1740. He would also be possible.

  John then enters a 'Dark Ages' period.  There are just no documents to be found (so far) that mention him.  A later document (below) will tend to infer that he was raised by his uncle, Joseph Ward, Jr.  But that is most certainly only a guess.  This area of Baltimore Co became Harford Co--and the following deed is most likely our John Ward.  (As you can see, he's even called "John son of John"). Some have opined that he's stocking up to move.  That's perhaps true, but we'll never know for sure.  Certainly the timing seems right and the document tends to infer a close relation:
             
                                  

                        
   In any case, whether it's John Sr's son or Richard's son, a John Ward  moves down to Orange Co., NC not long after.  But we are still left with a couple of questions:  Who was the wife of this John that moved to Orange Co NC? ...and why was his only known son named Sutton?

                             

More on John Ward Sr.

  At another time, we can certainly go back and list more of Joseph Ward's children.  But, for right now, we are on the trail of his son, John....
    Baltimore has some very nice Parish records.  Often they even go so far as to record the names of the birth parents.  In this case, we can find that John Ward, son of Joseph and Bridgett, was born Nov. 22, 1711.
  So yes, by the time of the Robinson deed in the previous posting, John was still very much a minor (and you can see why legal minds think this whole exchange of the property from Joseph to Jacob Robinson and then back to Joseph's minor son was a 'dodge' of some kind).

    Continuing on in the Parish records we find the wedding of John Ward to Sarah Burrough on Dec. 17, 1737.   This matches up nicely with the following document.  Below you are seeing John Ward selling Ward's Adventure to Stephen Onion in June, 1738.  The first page is enough to show the relevant detail:
             
                           

  As you open the deed, you will see:
   1) that this is the same Ward's Adventure that Joseph Ward's son, John, bought from Jacob Robinson in 1728.
   2)  Down at the bottom you can also see that it mentions John Ward "and Sarah his wife."
   3)  Most importantly, notice that the mark that John Ward uses is exactly the same as the mark on the Orange Co, NC wedding bond that started all this in the first place!
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Another birth record in the Parish records shows Elizabeth Ward of Joseph and Bridgett b. May 1, 1707.   As we have seen, Thomas Barton married Elizabeth Ward.  And then he moved over to the Deer Creek area and received at least two land patents.   After John sells out, he will follow--as will his brother, Joseph Jr.  We have all the siblings clustered together on Deer Creek by the early 1740s.
  In fact, there is also one land patent in that area for Joseph Sr as well.  But this is just before the elder Joseph died.
  Whatever happened in January of 1746, it took out a fair part of the Ward line.  Barnes' excellent work, Baltimore County Families, shows both a Joseph and a John Ward dying in that month.  He notes that William Dallam had admin over John's estate.  Fortunately, there are deeds that demonstrate this--which will be the next posting.
                                                                                                   (Kevin)

John Ward Sr. of Baltimore

 Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Thomas Barton and John Ward we are seeing in the Baltimore Co documents are likely too old to be the ones on the wedding bond in Orange Co, NC.  And that's true as we will see.
  But much more probative is the notion that the man next to John Ward and Thomas Barton in the early 1740s is a Joseph Ward JR.  This, of course, sets us off in search of Joseph Ward SR.  And that's a pretty straight-forward task.

    The very first posting of this blog shows Joseph Ward's initial land acquisition in 1720, named Ward's Adventure.   Several years later, he can be found acquiring a prime lot in the newly developed town of Joppa.  He is listed as "Innkeeper."  About that time  (1724), he decides to sell Ward's Adventure to Jacob Robinson:
                             

  The document is important in that you can see Joseph's wife agreeing to the sale in the last paragraph.  Her name is stated to be "Bridgett."


  Jacob Robinson doesn't hold the land for long.  Instead, he turns around in 1728 and sells this same parcel of land back to Joseph Ward's son, John Ward--who is a minor!   John is stated to be 'son of Joseph and Bridgett Ward of Joppa Town." The first page of the deed, containing these details, is below:

                                                

  So we have Joseph, and now we've found his son John who appears to be John Sr.  A visit to the Parish records is then in order...

 (A note for John Whitaker researchers.   As many know from his will, John's second wife was named Mary. After John's death she married the above Jacob Robinson.  These two transactions for Ward's Adventure look to some like a legal maneuver for Joseph to somehow avoid a debt. (This becomes more likely as one sees just how poorly Joseph conducted his affairs).  Because of the nature of these deeds, there is the deep suspicion that John Whitaker's second wife, Mary, was quite likely a close relative of Joseph or Bridgett.)

                                                                                                                  (Kevin)
  

Finding John Ward's Origins--The Beginning

It all really comes down to one document.  This is the wedding bond for John Ward's daughter, Rebecca who married Wm "Crumton" (Compton) in 1789:
                   

The obvious question is "Why is Thomas Barton co-bonding the wedding of John Ward's daughter?"

  There are some excellent Barton researchers out there.  Armed with their findings and a bit of knowledge of early Orange Co, NC history, one can move pretty quickly from here.  The Bartons came from Baltimore Co, MD.  And anyone who looks at the various Barton findings (or the Baltimore Parish wedding records) will see that a Thomas Barton married an Elizabeth Ward in  Feb 1732/33 back in Baltimore.  We have the making of a 'cluster' here.

   And so we move up to Baltimore and look at the Land Patent records.  Here we find the following Patents, all grouped together (as you will see) on Deer Creek:

    1734       Thomas Barton, Barton's Chance, 40 acres
    6/25/1742 Thomas Barton, Barton's Folly,  100 acres
    6/24/1742 John Ward, Ward's Purchase, 201 acres
    3/15/1744 Joseph Ward, Mount Pleasant,  67 acres
    4/30/1744 Joseph Ward, Jr. Joseph's Chance, 40 acres (surveyed 1743)
    6/18/1745 Joseph Ward, Ward's Lott, 20 acres

Notice that the Patents from Barton's Folly and Ward's Purchase are only one day apart. And we know from the Barton researchers that a Thomas Barton is married to Elizabeth Ward

   Starting with the Mount Pleasant Patent:
                                 

As you can see here, the land borders Thomas Barton's.  Continuing on:

   

Here you can see another of Joseph's lands in the area, but this time the deed notes that his land borders John Ward.  He is next to Ward's Purchase...and his other lot is next to Thomas Barton....and Thomas Barton is married to an Elizabeth Ward.
  And so we have ourselves a cluster.  Albeit a small one--just two families.  But we have to keep in mind also that it's very well-known that the Crabtrees come from this area as well.  And John Ward's son, Sutton, married a Crabtree in Orange Co, NC.
   It's also worth noting that some of the Barton researchers have Elizabeth Ward as the daughter of a Joseph Ward and Bridget.  And, here we are seeing Joseph Ward Jr next to John Ward and Thomas Barton.   
  Can we document the line back further, is the obvious question.                                           
                                                                               (Kevin)

A Brief Word on Methodology

  The method we now most frequently employ has come to be termed "Cluster Theory."  This is nothing more than a fancy-ass name for a really basic principle:  that early American families did not move on their own.  They didn't just pack up the U-Haul and head on down the road.  Rather, due to the rigors and dangers of travel back then, they moved in groups.  People in these groups tended to come from the same 'neighborhood' and then tended to settle in the same area when they reached their destination.
  In essence, they were 'clustered' together when they started, and continued to cluster together when they arrived.  As there are very few old documents that actually prove that a person moved from one place to another, being able to show the same associated names in both locations is paramount is really proving that we are talking about the same person in both instances.
 
   Sadly, most 'bad' genealogy ignores this point.  Rather, many practice what I've termed "Spot it, Got it!" genealogy.   This is best defined by an example:
    A person knows that ancestor John Doe arrived in Orange Co and shows up on documents there by 1785.   They then go looking all over the place for another John Doe somewhere else.  Finding one, in say Philadelphia, they concluded "That's him!"   This is then posted on the internet...becomes 'gospel.'... and you eventually have the type of information that's contained in 80% of the Ancestry Trees.  There is no other associational evidence to even begin to demonstrate that this is really the same person.

    While there are other interesting aspects of Cluster Theory, there's no reason to go into them right now.  I'm sure they may well come up as the posting continue, however.  But an obvious one would be that these clusters of families tended to frequently inter-marry.
    Which leads to a brief final word on Wedding Bonds.  Over the years I've encountered hundreds of these bonds in research.  At this point there are only about a dozen or so where I cannot make the family connection of the bondsman/bondsmen to one of the parties being wed.  Sometimes it took years to figure out the connection.  Just recently, 2 bonds that I was sure had no family connection yielded to a new discovery that showed that there was, in fact, a very likely one.  Thus, we tend to take is pretty much as a 'Law' that if a person is bonding the wedding, they are 'family.'  If nothing else, you can figure that's going to be true a good 90+% of the time.

    Enough said.  Let's move to the good stuff.
                                                                                                         (Kevin)

Who was Joseph Ward?

  I suppose the first question is "Who was Joseph Ward?"

  Up until very recently, the known progenitor of the Ward line of  northern Orange County, North Carolina was John Ward.  As is already well-documented, John arrived in Orange in the very early years of the Revolutionary War.  But from where?  That's been the mystery.
  His son, Sutton Ward, went on to marry Nancy Crabtree in 1784--and the couple had quite a number of children.  Their offspring went on to eventually spread out over a good part of the country-- with particular concentrations in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Today there are countless descendants of John Ward, some still residing in Orange Co.
    But much of this is already readily available thanks to the work of my friend and colleague, Steven Ward, who has already penned two books on this Ward line.  (Hopefully, he will be posting here from time to time).  So, the main focus of this website (at least initially) will be to document current research into the ancestors of John Ward, himself.  Eventually, the aim is to make this website a 'clearinghouse for all things Ward'--covering a wide variety of topics and other discoveries about the Wards and associated families.

    And so, to answer the original question:  Joseph Ward of Baltimore Co, Maryland was the grandfather of John Ward.   The main focus from here is to show and document this connection.
                                                                                                                  (Kevin)

Joseph Ward's Origins

  The first known legal document for Joseph Ward in Baltimore Co., Md. was a land grant on the Little Falls of Gunpowder River  by the name of Ward's Adventure.  This was surveyed 31 Jan 1720.