Samuel Ward - Mary Hilliard Family Group

What We Know About This Family

Noteworthy:

Mary Hilliard died shortly after their arrival in Massachusetts, but her husband, Samuel, and their three children lived their lives among people whose families traveled more frequently than most of the families in the branch. Two of the three children married Marbleheaders and raised their families there. This family brought us in proximity by marriage of their son Samuel to the history of the Mayflower and to the the governorship of the Massachusetts Bay. Samuel's first wife was Abigail Maverick, daughter of Moses Maverick and his Mayflower wife, Remember Allerton. Samuel married as his second wife Sarah Bradstreet Hubbard, the widow of Richard and daughter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife Anne Dudley, the first-published writer in the Colonies.

An Overview of Their Lives

Samuel Ward, his wife Mary Hilliard, and two of their children rived from England in 1636 or 1637. Samuel had received a land grant on the lower plain of Hingham in 1636. In the following year, he became a freeman and served as deputy to the General Court. His wife, Mary, died in Hingham in the fall of 1638 about ten days after the baptism of their son, Samuel, II. He later, but before 1656, married the widow Frances Pitcher Rycroft. In 1643, he obtained permission to set up a corn mill for the use of the town. He owned a considerable amount of property in Hingham, Hull, and Charlestown. He soon after moved to Hull where he remained less than ten years before moving to Charlestown, where he became a large landowner. In 1665, he and Frances sold three lots of land in Hingham totaling 37 acres (2, 10, and 25 acres). When he died in 1689, he left a legacy to Frances (and the assets she had brought with her to the marriage); he left a bequest to his son Samuel and Samuel's children; he left land in Hull to his daughter, Mary, and her husband Ambrose Gale; and a house in Cambridge to his son-in-law, Isaac Lobdell. He also left 30 acres that was "Bomkin" Island to Harvard University with the wish that it be known as Ward's Island, the rents from which to be used for the easement of charges to students in the common.

Some genealogists attribute a son Henry Ward to the parentage of Samuel and Mary Hilliard Ward, but acknowledge that the paternity has never been confirmed. Henry Ward was born in the time range of the other children. He had numerous children, but neither Henry nor any of his dozen children was mentioned in Samuel's will, so I have not included him as a child of this couple.

About the Children

• Mary Ward and her husband Ambrose Gale are direct ancestors in this family tree and have their own family group page. Ambrose started in Salem, but moved to Marblehead where he was a merchant and shoreman and where all their children were born and raised. Their house was built in 1663 and remains to the present day as the oldest standing home in Marblehead.


• Martha Ward and her husband Isaac Lobdell, yeoman, spent most of their married lives in Hull, Massachusetts. A deed of property transfer to their son, Joseph, included a slave, Sambo.
  


• Samuel Ward II married twice into distinguished families of Colonial Massachusetts. His first wife, Abigail, was the daughter of Moses Maverick and his wife, Remember Allerton. Remember and her parents were passengers on the Mayflower. Her mother died in that first harsh winter after delivering a still-born child while living on board the Mayflower within weeks of their arrival. Isaac Allerton was involved in the financial activities of the Colony and traveled back to England on Colony business. He returned to Massachusetts bringing nefarious characters back with him. He commingled his personal funds with those of the Colony and was eventually banished and ended up a successful business man in Connecticut. Remember survived to adulthood and married Moses Maverick, a name known to anyone with knowledge of Marblehead's early history. Moses came early to Marblehead, and is considered by many to be the father of the community. "A business man of much enterprise," Moses was taxed in 1638 on over 140 acres of land. Many Marblehead settlers of the time named their daughters "Remember"after his wife. Samuel and Abigail raised several children in Marblehead before she died. After her death, Samuel married Sarah Bradstreet Hubbard, the widow of Richard and daughter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife Anne Dudley, the first-published writer in the Colonies. Sarah had six children with her first husband, a few who were still young when she and Samuel merged their families. Samuel Ward was an officer in the military command and had been promoted to the rank of major when he went to Quebec as part of the Phipps' expedition in the William and Mary War. The expedition was a failure and battle ensued in which Major Ward suffered injuries from which he died after his return to his home.

Proof of Relationship

The genealogical records are our best proof of relationship for our direct ancestors in this family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is basically complete.