Argument for the Homersfield Ancestry of Andrew Warde

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Warde, Ward,

Copyright 2017 Janice L. Salsbery

Excerpted from Our Extraordinary Ancestors, The Ancestors of Clinton Wilbur Pearson and Bessie Adelaide White

Contents 1 Argument for the Homersfield Ancestry of Andrew Warde 2 Proposed Homersfield Genealogy 2.1 WARDE of Homersfield in the 1612 Visitation of Suffolk 3 John Hare 4 Gunville Family 5 Richard Warde's Will 6 How Far Did Andrew Travel to Meet Hester? 7 Sources

Argument for the Homersfield Ancestry of Andrew Warde

Donald Lines Jacobus wrote “...family of Richard Ward of Gorleston or Homersfield have been investigated. No such person as Richard Ward was found; no Gunville family existed in that vicinity as lords of the manor; and every reference given has proved to be fictitious. It is likely that these statements were the invention of a fraudulent genealogist, innocently accepted by members of the Ward family, through whom they found their way into the book."^[1]

Robert Charles Anderson wrote that no evidence of the family has been found in Homersfield. ^[2]

Both of these men ignored, or did not discover, the evidence found in the 1612 The Visitation of Suffolk. There IS evidence for the existence of Richard Ward of Homersfield and the Gunville family, set forth below.

Proposed Homersfield Genealogy

GENERATION I

THOMAS1 WARDE was of Homersfield, in the northeast corner of Suffolk, England. Thomas Warde married UNKNOWN HARE, the daughter of JOHN HARE, Doctor of the Civil Law.^{[3] [4] [5]}

Powers-Banks Ancestry states that “The Hares were well known, John’s father, Sir Nicholas of Homersfield being a judge, 1557, able to trace their family through twelve generations.” ^[6] Research indicates that this Nicholas, who was also Speaker of the House of Commons in 1539 (and died in 1557), was John's brother, not his father.^{[7] [8]}There are many John Hare's and Nicholas Hare's, making the research difficult.

The possible descent of the immigrant Andrew Warde from Thomas is conjectural. Some researchers outright reject it, but they make no mention of the 1612 Visitation of Suffolk, quoted below. This writer believes this line to be highly likely, but it cannot be absolutely proven that Andrew Warde born 1570 d. 1615 is the father of Andrew Ward b. 1597.

Heraldic visitations were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms (and more often by junior officers of arms (or Heralds) as deputies throughout England, Wales and Ireland. Their purpose was to regulate and register the coats of arms of nobility and gentry and boroughs, and to record pedigrees. They took place from 1530 to 1688, and their records (akin to an upper class census) provide important source material for historians and genealogists. ^[9]

The Visitation of Suffolk, 1612, page 173, recorded the following; ^[5]

WARDE of Homersfield in the 1612 Visitation of Suffolk

"THOMAS WARDE of Homersfield in Suff., mar. the da. of John Hare, Doctor of the Civil Law, and of Homersfield, and had issue, - RICHARD, son and heir, and one da."

"RICHARD WARDE, son and heir of Thomas, mar. Ann, the da. and heir of Richard Gonvile of Gorleston in Suffolk, and had issue, Henry, son and heir; RICHARD, second son; Humfrey, ob sine prole; Ralfe; Andrew; Margaret, mar. to Thomas Crofts of Felmingham in Norfolk; Susan, mar. to William Pickering of Titchmarsh in Northants."

"RICHARD WARDE, son and heir of Richard, mar. Elizabeth the da. of Thoma Seaman of Norwich, a Civilian, and hath issue. Elizabeth, age 10; Ann, age 9."

John Hare

All of John Hare's children have been identified by name, except for one daughter.

“John Hare Citizen and Mercer of London, and Dorothy his Wife. Had eleven Sons and three Daughters. And dyed 1564.”^[10]

“This John Hare was a wealthy Mercer, living in Cheapside in the Parish of S. Mary le Bow, Son of John Hare of Homersfield in the County of Suff. Esq; and Brother to Sir Nicolas Hare, Kt. Master of the Rolls. He had Sons, Nicolas his Heir, Thomas, John, Hugh, Ralph, Richard, Edmund, &c. and Daughters, Isabel, married to Cholmley, Margaret , married to Audely, Mercer, &c. And by his Industry in his Calling, left Manours and Lands, and Tenements among his Children, and made his Will Aug. 25. 1564.”^[11][12] Elsewhere, it is verified that John was the 2nd son, his brother Nicholas being the eldest, born by 1495.^[13] If John was born in 1497, then this unnamed daughter must have been nearly his eldest child, born by 1520. This means that if she is the mother of Richard Ward, he was born by 1540, give or take a couple of years at each generation.

GENERATION II

RICHARD2 WARDE (Thomas1) may have been born about 1538-1540 at Homersfield. At the time of the 1612 Visitation, his two daughters were married and he had grandchildren. “The family belonged to the nobility, including barons, lords, knights, etc. The Warde family lived in Homersfield and Gorleston, Suffolk where Richard was lord of a manor.” ^[14]

George K. Ward writes, in 1910; "We do not know that Richard Ward was the son of Thomas Ward, of Homersfield.”^[15] Robert Charles Anderson, in The Great Migration Begins, states that no evidence of the family has been found in Homersfield. ^[16] These men were not aware of The Visitation of Suffolk.

William. H. Powers wrote in 1921;

“Sir Richard Ward of Homersfield ... was the son of Thomas, his mother a daughter of Dr. John Hare who died 1526; the son of Nicholas, a grandson of John."^[17] We now know that John Hare died in 1564 and was the son of John Hare, brother of Sir Nicholas Hare.

Power-Banks Ancestry states: "The Hares were well known, Sir Nicholas of Homersfield being a judge, 1557, and traced their family through twelve generations. Richard Ward died old, the lord of Gorleston Manor, leaving by will in 1598 his property to five sons, the fifth of whom was Andrew, his share being 333£. The Gorleston Manor had come into the family from Richard’s wife, the daughter of Richard Gunville, said to have been of the same family as the founders of Gonville College."^[18]

"It is assumed that the immigrant Andrew was the son of the Andrew who died in London, 1615.” ^[19] THIS is the main link that is not yet conclusively proven.

Gunville Family

Richard Warde married ANN GUNVILLE the daughter of Sir Richard Gunville, of Gorleston, and his wife inherited the manor from her brother, Henry, whose widow died in 1580. ^{[20] [21] [22]} At his widow’s death, it passed to the wife of Richard Warde.^[23] Fifty Puritan Ancestor’s quotes “American Ancestry" for 1894 calling him "Sir Richard Ward, Knight, of Homersfield and Gorleston, Suffolk County, England.^[24]

"Richard Gunvile was lord, and with his descendants the manor continued until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Henry Gunvile dying s.p. it passed to his sister, Anne, who married Richard Ward, Esq."^[25]

"The Gunviles or Gonviles were an ancient family both in Norfolk and Suffolk. Sir Edmund Gonvile was the founder of Rushworth College in Norfolk, and of Gonvile Hull in Cambridge, and, as it is believed, of the Friars Preachers at Thctford, and of St. John's Hospital at Lynn. They bore arg., on a chev. sa., betw. two couplo closes, outwardly engrailed, three escallops or. Richard Gunvyle, by his will made in 1552, devised, besides the Manor of Bacons, divers lands and tenements in Gorles- ton, Bradwell, Southtown, Hopton, Corton, Belton, Burgh, Herringflect andLound. See Add. M.S. 19098, p. 400. This name was probably corrupted to Gunnell. A Yarmouth merchant, John Gunnell, gavo by will in 1699 to his son, "my medall of gold of about five pounds value." X For an account of his family see vol. i., p. 257. In 1595 Richard Ward was " chievor," and " did paio the wholo rent without any helpers, because he could not fynd eny from lands out of his owne possession."^[26]

From Wikipedia: The college was first founded, as Gonville Hall, by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington St Clement in Norfolk in 1348, making it the fourth-oldest surviving college. When Gonville died three years later, he left a struggling institution with almost no money. The executor of his will, William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, stepped in, transferring the college to its current location.^[27]

Respected genealogist, Donald Lines Jacobus writes in 1930;

“...family of Richard Ward of Gorleston or Homersfield have been investigated. No such person as Richard Ward was found; no Gunville family existed in that vicinity as lords of the manor; and every reference given has proved to be fictitious. It is likely that these statements were the invention of a fraudulent genealogist, innocently accepted by members of the Ward family, through whom they found their way into the book."^[28]

Yet a Richard Gunvile is found in Suffolk in the Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office of Edward VI, for 16 December 1550, Appendix 1, Fine Roll. ^[29]

Richard Warde's Will

Richard Warde’s will was probated in the Bishop’s Court in 1598. ^[30] It is said that he was at an extremely old age.^[31] He gave to his son Henry all his lands in Horstead and Stoninghall, in Norfolk;^[32] to his son Richard all his lands, tenements, etc. in Metfield, Wethersdale, Menham, Sandcroft, Homersfield, St. Michaels and Flixton, in Suffolk, and all his remaining lands in Norfolk;^[33] to his son Andrew £333. He was succeeded by his son Henry Ward, lord of the manor.^[34]

In 1872, Charles John Palmer describes later generations of this Ward family, and includes the following footnote, along with an image of the Ward family crest;

"The Wards of Gorleston and Homersfield in Suffolk bore az., a cross between four eagles displayed arg., and for a crest on a mount vert., a hind couchant arg. The above-named James Ward sealed with these arms, which had been confirmed to his ancestors by Robert Cook, Clarenceux, in 1593, a copy of which grant is in the possession of Mr. A.W. Morant. Neale Ward, his brother, resided at Bury St. Edmunds."^[35]

Children of Richard and Ann (Gunvile) Warde:^[36][37]

i. HENRY3 b. 1559; d. 1645.

ii. RICHARD3.

iii. HUMFREY3.

iv. RALPH3 m. UNKNOWN b. 1572.

3 v. ANDREW3 b. abt. 1570.

vi. MARGARET3 m. THOMAS CROFTS of Felmingham in Norfolk.

vii. SUSAN3 m. WILLIAM PICKERING of Titchmarsh in Northampton.

The Ultra-fashionable Peerage of America: An Official List of Those People who Can Properly be Called Ultra-fashionable in the United States, 1904, lists some people among the upper-crust who are;

“all lineal descendants of Andrew Ward, the Connecticut colonial statesman, son of Sir Richard Ward, and grandson of Sir Richard Gunville, from whom Oliver De Lancey Ward and the rest of the Wards of Ward’s Island emanated.”^[38]

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 44, page 120, offers an alternate pedigree for Andrew Ward of Connecticut.^[39] The source quoted is The visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-19 : with Northamptonshire pedigrees from various Harleian mss, page 151. That Ward pedigree doesn’t even mention an Andrew.^[40]

Clues from English Archives admits that "It is also noteworthy, in further contravertion of that erronious derivation, that we find in the Parish Registers of St. Mildred" s Cornhill, London, the burial of a Mr. Andrew Warde, gent., 3January, 1615,f who was probably the son of that Richard Ward of Homersfield and Uorleston, Suffolk, who was so lightly accepted as the American Emigrant without a scintilla of evidence beyond the Christian name."^[41] They admit that the Andrew Warde who was buried 1615 was probably the son of Richard Warde of Homersfield. Then they announce that the immigrant Andrew Warde came from a Northampton family, based on nothing more than the Christian name. What evidence exists to place him in Northampton?

This writer finds the inclusion of Thomas and Richard Warde in The Visitation of Suffolk to be indisputable evidence. Prior researchers fail to mention this compelling source document. The Visitation tells us that Thomas Warde of Homersfield married the daughter of John Hare of Homersfield and they had a son named Richard who married Ann, daughter of Richard Gonville. They DID exist. The evidence is convincing but not absolutely proven, that Richard’s son Andrew is the same Andrew Warde who was born about 1570, died in 1615 and had a son named Andrew who married Hester Sherman.

GENERATION III

ANDREW3 WARDE (Richard2, Thomas1) was born about 1570 at Homersfield.^[42] His wife is unknown. It is assumed he is the Andrew who was buried at St. Michael’s, Cornhill, London on 23 January 1615 and may have been the father of the immigrant Andrew. ^[43][44][45] At the same place was buried Ralph Ward, probably the brother mentioned in the will of Richard.^[46][47]

Mr. Leverland, who journeyed through Suffolk in 1657, wrote in a manuscript; “Descendants of Andrew Ward, son of Richard of Homersfield, were in New England.”^[48][49]

GENERATION I OF PROVEN LINE

1 ANDREW1 WARDE was born in 1597 at Homersfield, Suffolk, England.^[50] He signed his name Warde but all of his descendants dropped the “e”. ^[51] Whatever his ancestry, all of the genealogists noted above, agree that this Andrew married in 1628 at England, HESTER4 SHERMAN (Edmund3, Edmund2, Henry1). Hester was baptized on 1 April 1606 at Dedham, Essex, England. ^[52][53]

How Far Did Andrew Travel to Meet Hester?

The county of Essex borders the county of Suffolk. It is 42 miles from Homersfield to Dedham. The aforementioned New York Genealogical and Biographical Record tried to place Andrew’s origin as belonging to a Northampton family of yeomen, at least 120 miles from Dedham.^[54] This seems highly unlikely if Andrew indeed married Hester Sherman.

Andrew Ward was a prominent member of New England, said to have possibly arrived on the same ship that carried Governor John Winthrop and Richard Saltonstall. Was Andrew the son of a Yeoman or the son of a gentleman?

Sources

Footnotes and citations:

1. ↑ Jacobus. Families of Old Fairfield. (1930) : 643.
2. ↑ Anderson. The Great Migration Begins. (1995): 1918-1921.
3. ↑ Ward. Andrew Warde and His Descendants. (1910).
4. ↑ Nash. Fifty Puritan Ancestors (1902).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Metcalfe. Visitations of Suffolk. (1882): 173.
6. ↑ Powers. Powers-Banks Ancestry. (1921).
7. ↑ The House of Commons
8. ↑ Wikipedia, Nicholas Hare
9. ↑ Wikipedia, Heraldic visitation
10. ↑ A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster
11. ↑ A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster/Cheape Ward, Book 3, Chapter 3, Children named
12. ↑ A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster
13. ↑ House of Commons
14. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
15. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
16. ↑ The Great Migration Begins
17. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
18. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
19. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
20. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
21. ↑ Fifty Puritan Ancestors
22. ↑ Visitations of Suffolk
23. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
24. ↑ Fifty Puritan Ancestors
25. ↑ Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, vol. 3
26. ↑ Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, vol. 3
27. ↑ Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
28. ↑ Families of Old Fairfield
29. ↑ Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward VI
30. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
31. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
32. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
33. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
34. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
35. ↑ Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, vol. 1
36. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants, pg. 7
37. ↑ Visitations of Suffolk
38. ↑ Peerage of America
39. ↑ The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record
40. ↑ The visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-19
41. ↑ CLUES PROM ENGLISH ARCHIVES: CONTRIBUTORY TO AMERICAN GENEALOGY
42. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants, pg. 7
43. ↑ The parish registers of St. Michael, Cornhill, London
44. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
45. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
46. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
47. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
48. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
49. ↑ Powers-Banks Ancestry
50. ↑ Andrew Warde and His Descendants
51. ↑ Sherman Genealogy
52. ↑ Fifty Puritan Ancestors
53. ↑ Sherman Genealogy
54. ↑ Google Maps

Source list:

• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. 3: P - W, (Boston: NEHGS, 1995): 1918-1921, biography of Andrew Ward. AmericanAncestors.org LINK

• Bindoff, Stanley Thomas. The House of Commons, 1509-1558, Vol. 1. (London, 1982): 296. Books.google.com LINK

• Chester, Joseph Lemuel ed. The Parish Registers of St. Michael, Cornhill, London : containing the marriages, baptisms, and burials from 1546 to 1754. (London: Harleian Society, 1882). Archive.org LINK

• Google Maps

• Great Britain. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward VI, vol. 5: 1547-1553. (London, 1926): page 358. FamilySearch.org LINK

• Historical Marker Database, marker=27172

• Jacobus, Donald Lines. History and Genealogy of Families of Old Fairfield, Vol. 1, (1930): page 643. Ancestry.com LINK FamilySearch.org LINK

• Metcalfe, Walter Charles. The Visitations of Suffolk made by Hervey, Clarenceux, 1561, Cooke, Clarenceux, 1577, and Raven, Richmond herald, 1612, with notes and an appendix of additional Suffolk pedigrees. (Exeter, 1882): 173. Archive.org LINK

• Metcalfe, Walter Charles. The Visitations of Northamptonshire made in 1564 and 1618-19 : with Northamptonshire pedigrees from various Harleian mss (London, 1887). Archive.org LINK

• Nash, Elizabeth Todd. Fifty Puritan Ancestors, 1628-1660. (New Haven, 1902) Archive.org LINK

• New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 44 no. 2, (April 1913): page 119-121. Clues from English Archives Contributory to American Genealogy: Ward Family, by J. Henry Lea and J.R. Hutchinson. Books.google.com LINK

• Nicholls, Charles Wilbur de Lyon. The Ultra-fashionable Peerage of America: An Official List of Those People who Can Properly be Called Ultra-fashionable in the United States. (New York, 1904). HathiTrust.org LINK

• Palmer, Charles John. The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, With Gorleston and Southtown, vol. 1. (Great Yarmouth, 1872), p. 257. Archive.org LINK

• Palmer, Charles John. The Perlustration of Great Yarmouth, With Gorleston and Southtown, vol. 3. (Great Yarmouth, 1875): p. 317. HathiTrust.org LINK

• Powers, Wm. H. Powers-Banks Ancestry; Traced in all lines to the remotest date obtainable; Charles Powers 1819-1871 and his wife Lydia Ann Banks 1829-1919. (Ames, Iowa, 1921). Archive.org LINK

• Sherman, Thomas Townsend. Sherman genealogy, including families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, England... (New York, 1920. Archive.org LINK

• Stype, John. A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster/Cheape Ward, Book 3, Chapter 3. (1720). Online Copy

• Stype, John. A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster/Cheape Ward, Book 3, Chapter 3, Children named. (1720). Online Copy

• Ward, George K. Andrew Warde and His Descendants, 1597-1910. (New York, 1910). Archive.org LINK

• Wikipedia: Heraldic visitation

• Wikipedia: Nicholas Hare

• Wikipedia: Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge