George Ward of Aston and Cote, Oxfordshire, brother of Thomas Ward?

George Ward was the eighth or ninth child of James Ward and Maria Willoughby, born in the hamlet of Aston and Cote, south of Witney and north of the River Thames in Oxfordshire.¹

James was an agricultural labourer who rented a messauge (small house) with a garden in Cote on the road to Shifford, now an abandoned village. As Cote still had an open field system at this time, James and his family would have had use of common lands for farming and pasture.²

 

Declining agricultural revenue for manors and growing cities meant poor opportunities for young men in rural areas. George and two of his brothers John and James had several run-ins with the law in Aston and Cote. At age 18, George spent 7 days in prison³ and received a whipping for stealing fish in the nearby village of Shifford.⁴ See Oxfordshire Wards Part II: James Ward of Aston and Cote for more information on James Ward’s family at Aston and Cote.

Recently, the Oxfordshire Family History Society contracted with Ancestry.com to place scans of parish registers on its website. I discovered an entry in the Marriage Banns at Shifford, St. Mary for George Ward and Fanny Brooks. Banns were posted thrice on August 23th, 30th, and Oct 6th 1835, but the couple never married. George was 19 years old and had recently been imprisoned for stealing fish from another Shifford resident, Thomas Rose. Maybe someone in the town objected to this marriage.

George’s last record in Oxfordshire was a two-month prison sentence for poaching in 1837.⁹ He next appears in Mortlake, Surrey, on 16 Sep 1839 marrying his Irish-born wife Mary Bridget McCann at the church of St. Mary the Virgin.¹⁰ My ancestor Thomas Ward was living in Mortlake at this time and had had married his wife Mary Ann Maria Walters at St. Mary the Virgin, Mortlake the year before on 5 Aug 1838.¹¹ Both men were sons of James Ward, labourer, neither could read or write and both were from the same area of Oxfordshire.¹² In the post Oxfordshire Wards Part I: Thomas Ward, son of James. Which James? I explore all available sources to determine Thomas’s parentage and come to the conclusion James Ward and Maria Willoughby are his most likely parents unless there James Ward I have yet to uncover (this is a possibility given how common the name Ward is).

There was an article in several major newspapers in February 1839 about a waterman with the surname Ward who lived in Mortlake and drowned in a boating accident in which three of the four men in in the boat were passed out drunk when it capsized.¹³ I could not find out the first name of the man Ward who drowned. Several of George’s (and possibly Thomas’s) brothers remain unaccounted for (John, James and Job), so it could have been one of them as the incident occurred during the time both George and Thomas were living in Mortlake.

George and Bridget Ward’s first child Mary Ann Ward was born in Mortlake in 1840.¹⁴ The family appears in the 1841 Census in Mortlake, living on the Lower Road to Richmond.¹⁵ Mary Ann died on 18 Jul 1841 of convulsions at the age of 10 Months.¹⁶ They had a second daughter Maria Ward (1842-1887) born the next year on 12 Jul 1842. The address on her birth certificate is “New Richmond.”¹⁷

From here, the family moved to Woolwich to find work at the London Docks. George and Bridget’s third child Margaret Ward (1844-1845) was born here at Rope Yard Rails on 16 Jun 1844.¹⁸ Sadly, Margaret died the next year. The burial register of St. Paul’s Church in Shadwell, across the river from Woolwich, recorded her burial on 19 Aug 1845.¹⁹ By 1845, George and Bridget were living on Great Spring Street in Shadwell, where they appear in the 1851 Census of England.²⁰

George and Bridget had three more children before this census record in 1851. They were all baptized at St. Mary & St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, Commercial Road in Stepney.

James Ward was born on 10 Nov 1846 died at, and was buried alongside his sister Margaret at St. Paul’s Church in 1848.²¹ Edward Ward (1849-1920) and Agnes Ward (1851-1915) were both born in Shadwell.^{22, 23} The London Dock Company demolished this section of Shadwell between 1854-1858 to make room for Shadwell New Basin.²⁴

The Wards moved back to Woolwich where George set up a Greengrocer’s business at 55 Woolwich High Street. Bridget played an active part in the family’s business. She ran a busy illegal pawnshop, called a leaving-shop, within George’s greengrocer building.²⁶ This type business required a thick skin to operate. Prostitutes and thieves were frequent customers.²⁷ In 1861, a “female of bad repute” and her male companion assaulted George and Bridget outside of their shop in broad daylight. The woman attempted to bite George’s nose off during the attack. Later in court, she claimed Bridget had a cape that belonged to her and that this is what prompted the assault.²⁸

George and Bridget’s oldest living daughter Maria Ward married Jeremiah Kirby, a London Docks worker on 17 Jun 1860 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Woolwich.²⁹ They had one daughter Agnes Maria Kirby, born on 15 Nov 1861 at 55 Woolwich High Street, the home of her grandparents George and Bridget Ward.³⁰ The family does not appear in the 1861 Census because the section including Woolwich Arsenal does not survive.³¹

Jeremiah Kirby made the newspapers in January 1863 for stabbing a man named Thomas Barrett at the Three Daws public house on Woolwich High Street.³² He was intoxicated at the time. A witness to the stabbing was Jeremiah’s mate Alfred Ward, who I believe was George Ward’s younger brother Alfred Ward (1829-?) who had also moved from Oxfordshire in the 1840s and found work as a Navvy.

George Ward appeared before the Woolwich Police Court in February of 1863 as part of a “sting” to get rid of Woolwich leaving shops. George escaped punishment because it could not be proved in the court that day that Bridget, who interacted with the shop’s customers and negotiated pricing, was George’s wife or that she had acted on his behalf.³³ George and Bridget left for America two months later.

THE WOOLWICH “LEAVING SHOPS.”—Walter Gee, 1, Market hill, Geo. Ward, 54 High street, James Borer, High street, William Butler, Warwick street, and mary Ann Davis, Union buildings, in this town, were summoned on Tuesday, by Mr. Varley, supervisor, and Mr. Hugh Tilsby, solicitor for the Crown, for keeping unlicensed pawnshops, commonly called “leaving shops,” contrary to the Pawnbrokers’ Act.…
-George Ward was then called for a similar offense. A woman here acted as the pawnbroker, and as no evidence was adduced to show she was the wife of Ward, or that she acted by his authority, the case was dismissed. … Mr. Maude expressed his approval of the Excise taking these measures, and his surprise that poor people should frequent these places, and he further hoped that the present prosecution would be the means of doing away with the Woolwich “leaving shops.”

George Ward arrived in New York on 11 May 1863 on the SS North American with his wife, three children Maria, Edward, Agnes and grandchild Agnes Maria.³⁴ He purchased 40 acres of land in Mundy Township, Genesee County Michigan on Cook Road across from a man named Isaac Brewer.³⁵ The family appears living here in the 1870 US Census.³⁶

Maria Ward’s husband Jeremiah Kirby did not make the trip to America. It is unclear if he died, was in prison or received a transportation sentence, but all are likely scenarios given Jeremiah’s history of stabbing people while drinking. Maria married William Guerin on 4 Jun 1871 in Detroit, MI.³⁷ She died on 27 Feb 1887 of cancer.³⁸ Agnes Ward, George and Bridget’s youngest child, married George W Brewer, the brother of their neighbor Isaac Brewer, around 1870. They had seven children: George E Brewer (1874-1896), Emily Brewer Eaton (1876-1947), Alfred Brewer (1880-1881), Edward Brewer (1884-1952), Sarah Blanche Brewer Benedict (1888-1978), Emery Ward Brewer (1893-1956) and one unknown child. George and Agnes moved up to Saginaw City, Michigan in the 1880s along with Agnes’s brother Edward Ward.

Meanwhile, Thomas Ward’s son Alfred Ward (1853³⁹-1933⁴⁰) and his wife Rosina Courtneidge Ward (1853-1883)⁴¹ emigrated from England. Arriving in New York on 22 Sep 1880,⁴² Alfred settled his family in Saginaw City. Rosina Courtneidge Ward died on 6 Feb 1883⁴³ followed by the couple’s infant son several months later.⁴⁴ Alfred was left alone to care for his two young sons, Alfred Earnest Ward (1879-1953) and Charles James Ward (1880-1953).

Both Alfred Ward⁴⁵ and Edward Ward appear in the Saginaw City Directory for 1882-3.⁴⁶ Alfred Ward was living on Perry Street as stated in his wife’s obituary,⁴⁷ so this is the same Alfred Ward. He is working as a laborer for George Morley of Morley Bros. a construction and hardware distribution company. Edward Ward was living a block away and working as a clerk and foreman for the same company, George Morley. The directory misspells Morley as Morris in the directory, but given the location and the lack of a company with the name George Morris, it is certain they were working for George Morley of Morley Brothers. He is boarding at the home of widow Eliza Gilson, whom he married in 1882.⁴⁷ If Thomas Ward and George Ward are brothers, then Alfred and Edward Ward would be first cousins and George would be his uncle. I think this is likely, given the family’s common locations in England and the USA but I still cannot prove it with direct records.

After Rosina Ward’s death in 1883, Alfred Ward moved to Mundy Township in Genesee County, where George Ward was living on his farm with his wife Bridget.⁴⁸ He married Mary Jane Kitelinger on 25 Dec 1883 in Thetford, Genesee County, Michigan. She was the daughter of John Kitelinger and Mary Brewer, and the first cousin of George W Brewer (Alice Ward’s husband) and Isaac Brewer, George Ward’s neighbor. Alfred listed his address as Mundy Township and witnesses were Isaac Brewer of Mundy and Sarah Brooks of Thetford.⁴⁹

The marriage was short-lived, and Alfred married his third and final wife Helen Close on 4 Jul 1896 in Mundy, Michigan.⁵⁰ They moved to Swartz Creek, Genesee County, Michigan where they had six children, Rosina Ward Farrar (1897-1916), Sadie Muriel Ward (1899-1900), Elizabeth Ward Steel (1901-2003), Delia H Ward Delong (1903-2001) Eldridge E Ward (1905-?) and Isabelle Ward Powers (1908-1979).

George Ward’s wife Mary Bridget McCann Ward died on 10 Dec 1884,⁵³ after which George went to live with his son Edward Ward in Saginaw City, who was by this time working as an undertaker.⁵⁴
Edward apparently became “very cross” and sent 85 year-old George to the poorhouse.⁵⁵

George Ward did go to live in the poorhouse where he appears as a boarder in the 1900 Census.⁵⁶ The superintendents of the county poor did not appreciate the fact that he had a son (with no dependent children)⁵⁷ capable of supporting him and succeeded petitioning the court to compel Edward to contribute $2 a week to the upkeep of his father George.⁵⁸

George died on 7 May 1901 at the age of 86 in Mundy Township. Edward and his wife were called down from their home in Merrill, Saginaw County, to attend his funeral.⁵⁹ Agnes Brewer of Swartz Creek was the informant on his death certificate. She listed his parents’ names as James Ward and Teresa Willoughby. George’s mother was actually Maria Willoughby, who died when he was three years old. Teresa Howson was his stepmother who married his father when he was five so the mix-up on the information given by his daughter for the certificate is understandable.⁶⁰

Reference Notes