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)