The Wards

The Wards joined the Finch family tree when Phoebe Ann Ward married Isaac Finch in Surrey in 1865. They were my 2nd great-grandparents. The Wards came from what is now North London but at the time was part of Middlesex. Read on and select the links to find out more about my Ward ancestors:

Phoebe Ann Ward (1836-1921).
My 2nd great-grandmother.

Phoebe was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, now North London, in 1836 and was baptised the following year in the local church. Her parents were William Ward and Mary Ann Downer (see below). Phoebe moved to work as a domestic servant in Reigate, Surrey, which is where she met her husband-to-be Isaac Finch. They married in 1865 but he died relatively young in 1896. She died in Kent in 1921.

Read more about Phoebe’s life.

William Ward (1806-1875) and Mary Ann Downer (1803-1891).
My 3rd great-grandparents.

William Ward was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, on 5 February 1806 and baptised on 4 May that year at All Hallows Church. His parents were Jonathan Ward and Sarah Emerson (see below). William married Mary Ann Downer on 20 May 1827 at Christ Church in Spitalfields.

In the three censuses from 1841 William was recorded as living with his family and working as a gardener in and around Tottenham Hale but by 1871 he was listed as a dairyman of 116 The Hale. A dairyman could refer to a milk seller while a gardener could be a domestic servant or a market gardener. The family’s earlier addresses nearby included Chapel Place and 4 Cottage Place, and he was listed on the 1838 electoral register for Middlesex as the occupier of a house and garden in Page Green.

Mary Ann Downer was born in 1803 in Winchester, Hampshire, and baptised at St John’s Church in the city on 28 December that year. Why she ended up in the capital is unknown but it’s possible that she moved to the city as a servant. While raising a family, she worked alongside her husband as a milk vendor but she was a widow by the time of the 1881 census, William having died in 1875 (date yet to be found). Mary Ann died on 4 February 1891, according to the Tottenham and Edmonton Weekly Herald of 6 February. It reported her address as Fore Street Villas, Upper Edmonton, and that she was the widow of William Ward of Tottenham Hale.

The couple had at least 10 children:

  • William Midway Ward (1828-1898), my 2nd great-grand uncle. A policeman who was badly injured during his service.
  • Charles Thomas Ward (1829-1887), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Born in Tottenham Hale, Charles became a gardener and publican.
  • Tanjore Abraham Ward (1832-1920), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Mystery surrounds the choice of Tanjore’s name but he became the landlord of the Cook’s Ferry Inn in Edmonton.
  • Emerson Ward (1834-1875), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Emerson was born on 12 June 1834 and baptised on 27 July at All Hallows, Tottenham. He grew up in the area and by 1851 was working as an assistant to grocer William Haydon, living with his employer’s family in High Cross, Tottenham. Ten years later he was living at home in Cottage Place, Tottenham, but he’d become a railway porter. Emerson married Elizabeth Ball (born in Gillingham, Kent, in 1829) on 16 September 1862 at St Mary’s Church in Chatham. His job with the railways then took him to Dover in Kent and an 1868 and 1871 record of electors listed him living at Limekiln Street. The census from 1871 shows that he was then working as a signalman but Emerson died in 1875 and was buried at St Mary The Virgin Church in Dover on 4 February 1875. Elizabeth continued to live in Dover, with the 1901 census recording her at Oxenden Street and working as a charwoman. She died in 1906 and was buried on 28 April in the town. Their known children were:
    • William Emerson Ward. Born in 1863 in New Brompton, Kent, he married Annie Alice Barham in 1886 and settled in Dover, raised a family and worked as a railway goods guard. He died in 1941 and was buried in Horsham, Sussex. Annie was buried there in 1950.
    • Sarah Elizabeth Ward was born in 1865 in Dover and married railway porter William Thomas Emerson in 1895. They lived in the town for many years and raised a family but I’ve yet to locate their death records.
    • Walter Charles Ward. Born in 1866 in Dover, he married local girl Hannah Elizabeth Croft in 1892, raised a family and worked on the railways as a goods packer. He died young in 1919. Hannah followed in 1938.
  • Phoebe Ann Ward (1836-1921), my 2nd great-grandmother who married into the Finch family.
  • Olivia Jane Ward (1839-1884), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Born on 30 March 1839 and baptised on 30 June at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex, Olivia grew up with her family in the parish but in the 1861 census she was described as an invalid. There is no other record of her until a death recorded in 1884. This is on a register of admissions to British mental hospitals, which shows an Olivia J Ward admitted to Banstead Asylum in Surrey on 22 May 1879. She died there on 13 February 1884. The absence of any other Olivia Wards in the records suggest this must be her, and Banstead Asylum was one of the Middlesex asylums and under the control of the Middlesex justices of the peace until 1889.
  • Walter John Ward (1841-1913), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Born on 20 August 1841, Walter was baptised on 19 September that year at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex. He grew up in the area and was working as a groom (probably what we would call a stable hand) at the time of the 1861 census, when he was still living at home with his family, but he was a coachman by the time of his marriage to Ann Bennett on 7 September 1865 at Christ Church, Southgate. She’d been born and baptised in 1839 in the village of Swallowfield, Berkshire. The 1871 census shows William working as a coachman at Forest House in Forest Gate, London – a grand mansion that wasn’t demolished until 1964 and that at the time was home to William Fowler MP and his family. William Ward and Ann were living in the neighbouring Forest Gate Lodge. By 1881, the couple had moved to Broad Lane, Tottenham, where he was now working, like his father, as a dairyman. His residence there is confirmed in the London Overseer Returns for 1886, which lists men who were entitled to vote. In 1891 the census listed him as a dairyman and cowkeeper and his wife as a dairy worker. A niece was living with them in a similar role at the time. In 1901, Walter was retired and living in 97 Nightingale Road, Wood Green. The couple had no children as far as I can tell and at the age of 66, according to the 1911 census, Ann had become blind. Walter died on 7 June 1913 in Nightingale Road and left effects valued at £2,950 17s and 7d. The death of an Ann Ward was registered locally in 1914 and I suspect this was Walter’s wife.
  • Joseph Ward (1843-????), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Baptised on 8 October 1843 at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Joseph grew up in the district with his family and was working as an under gardener by the age of 18 and the 1861 census. He married Clara Segar at St Mary the Virgin Church, Leyton, on 23 April 1868. She’d been born in Bradfield, Essex, in 1842. After the marriage the couple moved to Lewisham in South London, where Joseph worked as a gardener, and they had at least four children. The 1871 census showed the family living in Park Street, Lewisham, in 1881 at The Retreat in the town and in 1891 in Blessington Road in Lee. In the latter record Joseph was described as a gardener and caretaker. By 1901 they’d moved on again, to Hatton Garden in Holborn, London, with all their children and boarders too. In 1911 Clara and Joseph were round the corner at 58 Leather Lane in Holborn, both described as caretakers in charge of offices. By the 1921 census, the couple had moved to live with their son Edward and his wife in Birmingham, Warwickshire. Joseph died in the city in 1926, Clara the following year. Their children were:
    • Edward Segar Ward. Born in Lewisham in 1870, he married Alice Gertrude Smith in Kentish Town in 1896 and worked as a policeman. In 1921 he was working as an estate superintendent for Vickers ordinance manufacturers and living in Birmingham. He died in the city in 1929.
    • Joseph Charles Ward was born in Lewisham in 1874 and married Berkshire-born Kate Fisher in 1898. He worked as a stonemason. They were living in Holborn in 1939 but Kate died in 1945. Joseph died in April 1952.
    • James Robert Ward. Born in 1877 in Lewisham, he lived in Holborn, London, for some years and married Berkshire-born Lilias Maude Cox in 1906. He worked as a postman but then moved to Norfolk and worked in a hotel. They ended up in Bath, Somerset, with James a pub landlord. He died in 1963, Lilias in 1955.
    • Albert Henry Ward was born in 1880 in Lewisham and married May Laurie Glover in Holborn in 1903. They had children and he worked as an electrician and plumber in London. In 1939 they were living in Brighton, Sussex, but May died in Southgate, London, in 1943. I’ve not found a confirmed death date for Albert.
  • Agnes Maria Ward (1846-1926), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Agnes was baptised on 15 November 1846 at All Hallows Church in Tottenham. At the age of 15 she was in Winchester, Hampshire, with aunt Eliza Savage and working as a dressmaker – an occupation she continued to hold throughout her life. In 1871 she was back with her parents at The Hale in Tottenham but on 13 April 1872 she married tailor James William Davis at All Saints Church in nearby Edmonton. He came from Islington in Middlesex, where he was baptised on 8 November 1840. It was a short-lived marriage as he died in 1878, and she went to live with his parents in Edmonton, Middleton, for several years. She remarried on 9 November 1887 at All Hallows in Tottenham, her new husband being builder and carpenter John Tull, who was born in Alton, Hampshire, in 1841. They made their home in Edmonton, along with his two daughters by his first marriage. The 1891 and 1901 census returns showed them living in Fore Street Villas. John died in 1908 and in 1911 Agnes was living as a widow at 15 Park Avenue, Edmonton. She died locally in 1926.
  • Sarah Ann Ward (1850-1921). Born on the 5 January 1850, Sarah was baptised at All Hallows in Tottenham, Middlesex, on 17 February. She married William Shaw at All Hallows on 23 June 1874. He was born in 1846 in St Ives, Huntingdonshire, was described as a public servant and at the time of the 1871 census had been lodging with Sarah’s brother Tanjore. By the 1881 census he’d become a drover and the couple were living with Sarah’s mother at Cottage Place in Tottenham. In 1891 they were nearby at High Cross Road. Ten years later, Sarah was a widow and living south of the river with her children at Park Villas in Deptford, but I’ve not found a death record for William that I’m happy with. At the time of the 1911 census Sarah was living with several of her children at 106 Evelyn Street, Deptford. The building is no longer standing. Sarah died in 1921 in Deptford. The couple’s known children were:
    • William Lewis Shaw was born in 1877 but for some reason in Harwich, Essex. He married Daisy Ellen Rowson of Lambeth in 1904 and settled in the Manor Park and Tottenham areas for a while, he working as a warehouseman. They had several children but later moved to Ipswith in Suffolk. I don’t know when he died but Daisy passed away in 1947.
    • Amelia Agnes Shaw (1879-1897).
    • Albert George Shaw. Born in 1880 in Tottenham, the records are vague after the 1911 census when he was worked as a civil servant in the Admiralty but I believe he served with the Middlesex Regiment in the First World War.
    • Arthur Walter Shaw was born in 1881 in Tottenham and by 1911 was a cattle drover, living at home in Deptford with his mother. He died there in 1920.
    • Edith Ann Shaw was born in Tottenham in 1883 and married widowed newsagent Ernest Denman of Deptford in 1918. He became a verger at St Luke’s Church there but I have no record of their deaths.
    • Leah Shaw (1885-1910)
    • Herbert Victor Shaw was born in 1887 and married Lloyda Helen Clarke in 1921 in Worcestershire. HIs jobs include a policeman with the Port of London Authority. They retired to Worcestershire where Herbert died in 1962 and Lloyda in 1969.
    • Harriet Shaw was born in Tottenham in 1889 and married George Henry Speed, a policeman, in 1912. They had a child and ended up in Cambridgeshire, where she died in 1959 and George in 1962.

Jonathan Ward (1773-1826) and Sarah Emerson (????-????).
My 4th great-grandparents.

Jonathan Ward was baptised on 19 January 1773 at St John at Hackney Church in east London to parents Jonathan Ward and Susannah Gilson (see below). He married Sarah Emerson on 8 April 1792 at St Saviour’s Church in Southwark, south London. The record states that both ‘are of this parish’ but that could simply mean they had lived in the area in the weeks before their wedding. They moved to Tottenham to work and raise their family.

It’s possible that a Land Tax record from 1805 refers to our ancestor – bearing in mind the paucity of other candidates – as occupying property belonging to Thomas Powell in Tottenham. Some years later an auction of property in the area took place that refers to members of the Ward family. The Morning Advertiser of 19 November 1819 reported that the estate included a house and large garden in Homerton occupied by a William Ward and a copyhold estate comprised of a house, shop and premises lately occupied by Jonathan Ward at 25 guineas per annum. Perhaps one relates to the milk vending business that William – Jonathan’s son and my 3rd great-grandfather – operated. Jonathan was said to be a sawyer – who cut timber – on his son Robert’s marriage record.

Jonathan Snr died in Tottenham in 1826 and was buried at All Hallows Church on 27 August. I’ve not been able to track down information about Sarah’s birth or death with any confidence.

The couple’s children included:

  • Jonathan Ward (1792-????), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Jonathan was born on 23 October 1792 and baptised on 2 December that year at All Hallows in Tottenham. I’ve not been able to pin him down with certainty after this but he may have married a Susanna Trudgett on 9 April 1815 in Marylebone, London.
  • Joseph Ward (1794-1861), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Parents Jonathan and Sarah baptised Joseph at St John at Hackney church on 14 December 1794. He married the extravagantly named innkeeper’s daughter Catharine Garland Crotaz at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London, in 1818. She came from Somerset and was baptised at Lovington village church on 2 June 1799. They lived and worked in Tottenham for some years, judging by their children’s birth records but the 1841 census lists them in High Street, Homerton, where Joseph worked as a grocer. Ten years later he was a master grocer at 4 Orchard Place, Greenwich, in south London – off the main Trafalgar Road – and had a servant. At the time of his death on 8 March 1861, Joseph was living in Scotland Green, Tottenham. He left effects worth less than £100 in his will. Catharine died on 14 March 1871 in Chestnut Road, Tottenham, leaving goods valued at less than £20. The couple were non-conformists. Their known children were:
    • Joseph Ward, born in 1824, I suspect he emigrated to Ontario in Canada in 1870 and raised a family there. He married twice.
    • Samuel Ward‘s birth in Tottenham was registered in 1828. I’ve not been able to pin him down because there are too many candidates.
    • Josiah Ward was born in Tottenham in 1830. He died in 1843.
    • Josiah Ward was born in Homerton in 1835 but I am unsure of his fate.
    • Crotaz Ward was born in 1839 and had a varied life, working as a cook, hotel proprietor, ironmonger and meat carver at Derry & Toms department store in London. He married Rebecca Lawrence in 1867, had a son and lived in London, Hampshire and Northamptonshire. He became a mason and died in Hammersmith, London, in 1915.
    • Hephzibah Ward was born in Hackney in 1841 and married Edwin George Cranston in 1871. They raised a family while he worked as a dyer’s agent and seed packer. He died in 1894 and she followed in 1906.
  • George Ward (1797-????), my 3rd great-grand uncle. George was born on 27 January and baptised on 16 July 1797 at All Hallows Church, Tottenham. However, I’ve not been able to trace him with any confidence after this.
  • Mary Ward (1797-????), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Mary was baptised on 30 November 1800 at All Hallows in Tottenham but her trail then goes cold.
  • Robert Ward (1802-1867), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Robert was born on 26 December 1802 and baptised on 20 February 1803 at All Hallows Church, Tottenham. He married Sophia Barrett – who was born in 1803 and baptised in Tottenham – at Church Church in Spitalfields, London, on 29 September 1823. They had a number of children, all born and baptised in Tottenham, but Sophia died in 1839 and was buried in Tottenham on 10 June. It appears that he then married Elizabeth Marsden of Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire a few months later at All Hallows Church on 22 September. He was listed as a coach maker on the wedding record. Various censuses list Robert – the 1841 record showed him living in Tottenham Hale with his family, again listed as a coach maker. By 1851 he was in Bury Street, Edmonton, working as a labourer. In 1861 the family were in the lodge at Tottenham Female Asylum and he was working as a gardener there. Robert was buried at All Saints in Edmonton on 31 March 1867. Elizabeth’s death date is uncertain. Robert and Sophia’s children were:
    • Robert Emerson Ward (1826-73). Born in Tottenham, he had a varied working life going from gardener to shopkeeper, coach builder and a mechanic. He married Eliza Hussey of Enfield in 1848, had a family and died in Enfield. Eliza died in 1895.
    • George William Ward (1829-1847).
    • Frances Ward (1834-1857) was born in Tottenham and married Wiliam Henry Newby in Norwood, Surrey, in 1854 but died just a few years later in Edmonton. William remarried and died in 1908.
    • Agnes Ward (1834-1912) was born in Tottenham and married William Adams in 1855. He was a police officer, rising to sargeant, and for a time they lived in and around West Ham and Bethnal Green, raising their family. Later they moved back to Edmonton, where she died in 1912 and William in 1915.
    • Sarah Ward (1839-1875). Also born in Tottenham, Sarah married plasterer William Frederick Quirk in 1860. She died in Hoxton. William lived until 1915.
  • William Ward (1806-1875), my 3rd great-grandfather. See above.
  • Abraham Ward (1809-1868), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Abraham was baptised at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex, on 16 July 1809. He married Maria, whose origin is a bit of a mystery. The 1851 census showed the couple living in Chapel Place Gardens, Tottenham, with Maria working as a needlewoman from Mistley in Suffolk. However, the 1841 census suggests she was from Middlesex and the 1861 record specifically states she was from Tottenham. Further confusion comes in 1851 when the Wards were shown as living with ‘mother-in-law’ Sarah Galley, a 76-year-old charwoman also from Suffolk. After Abraham’s death, Maria was living as a lodger in Tottenham and this time was said to be from Manningtree – close to Mistley. I’ve found no record of Abraham and Maria’s marriage or evidence of her birth and it appears the couple had no children. The census records show that Abraham worked as a well sinker, an occupation that could include a combination of locating the best place to sink a well, the construction of it and then maintenance work. It didn’t necessarily mean digging all the way down to the water table – the job included sinking pipes and using pumps. Abraham died in 1868 but I’ve yet to find a death date for Maria that I’m comfortable with.

Jonathan Ward (????-1772) and Susannah Gilson (1742-1797).
My 5th great-grandparents.

I have no idea when Jonathan Ward was born. There are too many potential candidates and none stands out as a ‘most likely’. One example is a Jonathan Ward baptised at St Dunstan and All Saints parish in Stepney, Middlesex, on 5 October 1746, but there are several others born in the area at around this time.

The first event I can be confident about is his marriage to Susannah Gilson, which took place at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex, on 11 January 1767. Curiously, this was their second marriage ceremony. The first, on 25 December 1766, was ruled as invalid according to notes in the parish records because Ward’s name was wrongly listed in the banns as Wade.

A Jonathan Ward was buried at St John at Hackney in Middlesex on 24 November 1772. If he’s my ancestor he died young and before the birth of his youngest son Jonathan, my 4th great grandfather. But again, this isn’t certain.

Susannah was baptised on 25 January 1742 at All Hallows in Tottenham to parents Rose Seal and Daniel Gilson, a labourer. I believe Susannah died late in the 18th century. In 1797 a woman by her name was buried on 16 July at All Hallows in Tottenham. However, another burial was registered on 12 June 1782 at St John at Hackney church. This was one of the parishes where the family appear to have lived – their son Jonathan was baptised in the church for example.

Jonathan and Susannah had three known children:

  • Ann Ward (1768-????), my 4th great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised at All Hallows Church in Tottenham on 8 August 1768. She may have married a Henry Leeson in Lambeth, Surrey, in 1788 but this is not certain.
  • William Ward (1768-????), my 4th great-grand uncle. William’s baptism was recorded at St John at Hackney in Middlesex on 4 November 1770. After this, I cannot easily pin him down.
  • Jonathan Ward (1773-1826), my 4th great grandfather. See above.

Sources: BMD and other records from Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. British Newspaper Archive (details noted in text).