Captain Henry Ward

Ward of Sassafras Neck, Cecil County, Maryland

William Ward  |  Colonel John Ward | Henry Ward  | Read

Ward Family Tree | Woodlawn

Son of Henry Ward.

Born before 1678.

In 1707 he was in possession of a large body of land in Cecil County (see Rent Roll). There is no record to show at which place he lived so far as the writer of this record knows.

• “Gobham” (not sure of spelling) 1000 acres surveyed for him January 7, 1682.
• “Long Acre” 900 acres surveyed for him October 19, 1682.
• “The Levels” 500 acres surveyed for him May 15, 1683.
• “Poplar Neck” 1400 acres originally surveyed for William Fisher and sold to H. Ward.

He was:

• Justice of County Court: 1730, 1731, 1732, 1733.
• Vestryman of South Sassafras of St. Stephens 1723 to 1729, 1731 – 1732, 1734(?).

Ca. 1716, when Henry was 38 years old, he married Elizabeth Pearce, daughter of William Pearce and Isabella Hopkins. Elizabeth died before April 14, 1733.

They had a daughter who seems to have been an only child.

• Margaret Ward (105), born December 27, 1715, (St. Stephens Reporter); married July 31, 1734, to Benjamin Pearce, son of William and Isabella Pearce of Kent County, Maryland; died January 1765. (Dave Jarvis has her birth date as 12/27/1716 and death as 6/30/1755, at the age of 38. Religion Episcopalian.) It is possible that “Pearce’s Neck” in Cecil County took its name from the husband or son of Margaret Ward. This is substantially all I, Duncan Veazey, know of him but it is suggested this Henry Ward Pearce had a son Benjamin Francis Pearce born October 20, 1780. He may have been of the same family as Dr. George Read Pearce.  Henry Ward (104) died circa 1733 (Maryland Calendar of Wills, 21:85) in Cecil County, Maryland when he was 56 years old.

  The family of David Jarvis, descendant from Captain Henry Ward, has a number of heirlooms from the Wards, including a map and deed for Poplar Neck to Henry Warde, which was signed by Charles Calvert (in his father’s name) in February 1674. The deed mentions Mathew Warde as well. (Poplar Neck is now called Pearce Neck). He also has a Pearce coat of arms whose motto is ‘Comme je feu’.  Family history, an article on the Pearces (Maryland Historical Magazine, XXI, no. 2 p. 204., and the will of Henry Ward’s sister Arianna’s husband, Thomas Bordley, esq (Wills, 19:99), all mention some sort of relationship of either Margarett or Arianna Ward to Augustine Herman (sometimes as a granddaughter, or niece, or cousin).