Ward Name Study

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Ward surname - a list of Ward Surname profiles on Wikitree

WARD Y-DNA - W. E. Ward (1885-1963) got his Y-DNA tested and the result falls in haplogroup R1b, which is quite common in Western Europe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1b). This has been verified thru matches on ancestry.com ThruLines all the way back to John Ward (1691-1747) and theoretically to William Ward (1603-1687) including all direct male descendants. (see Visit to William Ward's Grave in Marlboro, MA)

This is a One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about one surname and the variants of that name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect. Please contact the project leader, add categories to your profiles, add your questions to the bulletin board, add details of your name research, etc.

##To add a sticker to a WARD profile, add this under the Biography: {{One Name Study|name=Ward}}. To add a profile to the WARD Name Study, insert [[Category: Ward Name Study]] before the Biography.

Ward name Origin

Surname Origin: English, Irish The Ward surname is of Old English origin and Old Gaelic origin dating to before the Norman conquest of 1066. The name is from the Old English weard, meaning guard or watchman. Irish families used to take their surname from the leader or chief of their clan and the Wards descended from a bard. They became one of the most learned clans in medieval Ireland, in law, medicine and history. The clan originated in Ulster and are said to have descended from Fiacha Araidhe who was King of Ulster in the 3rd century AD. Fiacha’s son Eocha later led the clan into Connacht. They were one of the tribes of the Six Soghin, who were a race of people in Ireland. They settled in the kingdom of Tír Sogháin, which is the area now known as County Galway. The village of Ballymacward is named after them. They were hereditary bards to the O’Kellys and the O’Connors. Millions left Ireland in search of better prospects. They headed in greatest numbers to Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States.

Spelling variations

Ward, Warde, Warden, Wardman, Wordman, Wards, Wardle, Wardlow, Wardale, Macanward, MacAward, MacEvard, MacEward, McWard and M’Ward.

Statistics on the Ward surname

Ward is the 1,110th most common surname in the world

Approximately 478,052 people bear the Ward surname

Ward is the 71st most popular surname in the United States.

The Ward surname is most prevalent in the United States. 289,440 people had the Ward surname in the United States in 2014.

Ward is the 31st most common surname in England.

The highest density of the Ward surname is in Barbados. 1 in 304 people had the Ward surname in Barbados in 2014.

England

Robert le Warde, recorded in the 1273 Oxfordshire rolls, was a guard. There is also Walter de la Warde, in the Suffolk rolls of the same year.

Wards were substantial landowners at Givendale near Ripon in north Yorkshire in the late 13th century. Sir Simon Ward was sheriff of Yorkshire in 1315.

John Ward obtained the manor of Kirby Bedon through marriage in Norfolk in 1363. Edward Ward took possession of Bixley Hall at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. The main branch of this Ward family were local gentry there until the 18th century. Sir Edward Ward died of a fever in 1742 at the young age of 21.

In the early 1600s William Ward, a sixth son of this family, became apprenticed as a jeweler. In time he became a very wealthy jeweler and goldsmith to royalty. William Ward's son Humble Ward married into the well-born Dudley family. Their descendants lived at Sedgeley in Staffordshire and became the Earls of Dudley.

Many later Wards were Conservative politicians.

John Ward, of uncertain origins, served in the British capture of Gibraltar in 1704.

George Ward became a large landowner on the Isle of Wight.

Ireland

Ward appeared in Donegal and Galway as an anglicization of the Gaelic mac an Bhaird in the 11th century, meaning son of the bard. The Mac an Bhairds originally served as the bards to the O'Donnells in Donegal and the O'Kellys in Galway and were among the learned families of medieval Ireland. Aedh Buidh Mac an Bhaird, or Hugh Ward, was born in Donegal in 1593 and is considered the father of Irish archaeology. Other Donegal names such as MacWard and Deward became Ward as well in the 19th century.

Viscount Bangor, one of the Wards of County Down, came from England.

Bernard Ward from Cheshire had been appointed Surveyor General of Ireland by Queen Elizabeth. In 1570 he acquired Castle Ward in Strangford, County Down, which was to be the family home. A later Bernard Ward rebuilt the castle in the 18th century.

American colonies

Andrew Ward arrived in the American colonies in 1633, and later settling in Fairfield, Connecticut, he died in 1660. There is a special monument to him in Fairfield’s Old Burying Ground Cemetery, in Fairfield, Connecticut.

William Ward (1603-1687) came to Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1639 and later settled in Marlborough, Massachusetts. (see Visit to William Ward's Grave in Marlboro, MA)

Nahum Ward, a sea captain, bought land in what became the town of Shrewsbury, in Worcester County, Massachusetts.

Also from Shrewsbury was Nahum's son, Artemas Ward, the Major General during the Revolutionary War. His home there is now the Artemas Ward House. It was said that [his grandson] Artemas Ward gave over four million dollars to Harvard University on condition that they erect a statue in honor of General Ward. Harvard provided the money for a statue, but not enough to give the general a horse. ^{[citation needed]}

James Ward, who came from Donegal to Philadelphia around 1730, settled with his three sons in Augusta county, Virginia.

John Ward, also from Donegal, settled in Amberson Valley in Pennsylvania sometime in the 1760s.

Francis Ward came to South Carolina from Antrim, Ireland around 1730. He married the daughter of a Cherokee chief, but he was later banished from the tribe. Nancy Ward, also known as Beloved Woman, became a much-respected mediator between the Cherokees and white settlers and lived until 1822.

James Ward emigrated from Donegal in 1860 and went to work in the Pittsburgh iron and steel mills.

Australia

First Fleet convicts

Ann Ward from London received 7 years.

John War from Lowth received 7 years.

Michael Hanley Thompson Ward was a convict from London sent to Australia in 1815. The famous Australian bushranger Fredrick Wordsworth Ward, aka Captain Thunderbolt, was his grandson.

Notable people with the Ward surname

Aaron Montgomery Ward (1843-1913), founder of mail-order business called Montgomery Ward & Co.

Dame Barbara Mary Ward (1914-1981), English economist

Clifford Thomas Ward (1944-2001), English singer-songwriter

Dame Geneviève Ward (1838-1922), American prima donna and actress

Sergeant James Allen Ward (1919-1941), New Zealand aviator awarded the Victoria Cross during WWII

Seaman First Class James Richard Ward (1921-1941), Medal of Honor recipient for heroism at Pearl Harbor in 1941

James Ward (1843-1925), English psychologist and philosopher

Sir Joseph George Ward (1856-1930), Australian-born New Zealand statesman, Prime Minister (1906-12, 1928-30)

Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922), English portrait artist and caricaturist

Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913), American botanist, sociologist and paleontologist

Mother Mary Ward (1585-1645), English religious reformer

Nancy Ward (1736-1822), Ghigau, Beloved Woman of the Cherokee nation, Patriot in the American Revolution

Nathaniel Ward (1579-1652), English lawyer

Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868), English physician and botanist

Major General Orlando Ward (1891-1972), U.S. Army officer during World Wars I and II, developed key Forward Observer procedures in Field Artillery between the wars

Rachel Ward (b. 1957), British actress

Seth Ward (1617-1689), English mathematician, astronomer, and bishop

William George Ward (1812-1882), English theologian

Ward place names

Assal al-Ward, Syria

Ward, Castleknock, Ireland

Ward, New Zealand

United States

Ward, Alabama

Ward, Arkansas

Ward, California

Ward, Colorado

Ward, South Dakota

Ward, New York

Ward, South Carolina

Ward, West Virginia

Ward Reservation, Massachusetts

Ward Township, Todd County, Minnesota

Ward Township, Hocking County, Ohio

Ward Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania

Resources

We relate.com - Surname Ward

Select surname list.com - Ward

Wikipedia - Mac an Bhaird

Ireland calling.com - Ward – Bards of Connacht and Ulster

Genealogy.com - The Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname Ward

Hause Genealogy - Ward family Genealogy

Forebears.co.uk - Ward Surname Meaning & Statistics

Wikipedia - Ward surname