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The Sons of Johnathan Ward

My family tradition has it that Johnathan or Johanathan WARD married Elizabeth BROOKBANK of Harrowgate, Yorkshire, England, and had three sons, namely

• Thomas,
• William, and
• John.

From here the documentary record picks up the story: On 13 August 1850, the widowed Elizabeth married Nehemiah BECKWITH,¹ a native of Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Twelve or fourteen years her senior, Nehemiah may well have been a widower himself.² William supported them until their deaths, Nehemiah at age 77 on 7 March 1873 and Elizabeth at age 74 on 8 June 1884.³

Johnathan may have been of Scottish extraction, as his children were Presbyterian and reported their origin to census takers variously as "Scottish" or "English". Their step-father Nehemiah was also a Presbyterian, but their mother Elizabeth was apparently Baptist. Whether she had been a Baptist from birth or whether she changed her inclination in her later years is not clear.

Thomas Ward and Jane Girvan

Thomas WARD was born in Yorkshire, England in 1830.^4--7 At the time of the 1861 census Thomas had recently married Jane GIRVAN (b.16 February, about 1838⁸) daughter of James and Mary GIRVAN of Galloway, and he was living in their household while working as a joiner. By 1871 they had settled on a farm at McNairn (also known as Mill Creek) near Buctouche.

Thomas and Jane Ward had the following children:

• James G., 28 December 1861 - 7 March 1944, husband of Margaret McNAIRN and father of six children.
• Elizabeth, born about 1863.
• Mary G., born 22 November 1864.
• Agnes Jane, born 29 December about 1865, wife of James Lee McNAIRN and mother of seven children.
• An infant son who died 20 October 1867 (or possibly 1862) at the age of nine days.
• Bell, born 27 March 1879, probably died in childhood.

Thomas died on 20 October 1897, and Jane died on 8 May 1908. Both are buried in the Buctouche Presbyterian cemetery.³

William Ward and Christena Morrison

William WARD was born in England on 30 September 1838.^{2, 9--13} He married Christena MORRISON sometime around 1871. Christena, born 19 March 1848, was probably the daughter of Malcolm and Catherine MORRISON¹⁴.

In the 1901 census William reported that he had immigrated in 1842.

William and Christina had the following children:

• Elizabeth Beckwith, born 22 September 1872, married Hugh CAMERON and had at least six children between 1893 and 1904.
• Catherine, born about 1874. She does not appear with the family in the 1891 census, so she may have died young or she may have left home by age 17.
• Jonathan C., born 14 January 1877, died 1952. Possibly the husband of Marie Emerise GALLANT, m.1 Jan 1926 in Moncton.¹⁵
• John M., born October 1880, died 26 March 1895.
• Harry J., born 10 December 1882.
• William, born 3 December 1884. He's William G. in the 1901 census, but there is a William Thomas in the Bouctouche Cemetery with the same birth year, died 1968, husband of Elizabeth Irene STILES (1905-1988). Because of the mismatch in the middle name and initial, I'd like further evidence about this marriage.
• Margaret Morrison, born 31 March 1889.

William died in 1926 and Christina on 1 April 1927, and both lie in the Buctouche cemetery.

John Ward, Are You Out There?

We don't know much about John, but there is one likely candidate in the 1861 census:¹⁶

The birthplace and religion together are suggestive that this a brother of Thomas and William. There are a large number of other Wards in the county and even Wellington Parish, but the others generally seem to be earlier immigrants and either Methodist or Baptist. These are the only three households of immigrant Presbyterian Wards in the area in 1861.

Further circumstantial evidence about this family comes from the Buctouche cemetery³, where a heavily eroded monument mentions Isabella Keswick WARD and the dates 1862, 1856 and 1888. Consider as well the following item from the New Brunswick Courier of 30 August 1862: "d. Buctouche (Kent Co.), Monday 4th inst., Isabella WARD w/o John WARD and eldest d/o John KESWICK, Esq., age 25, left husband three children."¹⁷ This is unquestionably the same couple as appear in the census entry above. The only new evidence is that her gravestone is in the Buctouche cemetery where also lie Thomas and William Ward. The number of Wards in that cemetery whom we already know are connected to this family reinforces the idea that Isabella KESWICK's husband was also Johnathan's son.

A name index for these Ward pages is available.

1. Kent Count Marriage Registers, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) microfilm F15483.
2. 1861 Census of New Brunswick, Wellington Parish, p.50, household 314. NBGS/PANB transcription, 1993.
3. Wendy Fisher Donnahee, John W. Donnahee, Mae Hannah Fisher and Sherman Fisher. "St. John's Presbyterian Cemetery", http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbken/CemStJohnsPresBuct.html, October 2003. Consulted 2006 Sept 14.
4. 1861 Census of New Brunswick, Richibucto Parish, p.95, household 570. NBGS/PANB transcription, 1993.
5. 1871 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington e-1 p.19 hh.61. Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) microfilm C-10391.
6. 1881 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington f-1 p.24 hh.99. LAC microfilm C-13185.
7. 1891 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington j-4 p.12 hh.59.
8. 1901 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington j-2 p.15 hh.144.
9. 1871 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington e-1, p.19, hh.60.
10. 1881 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington f-1 p.26 hh.100.
11. 1891 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington j-4 p.12 hh.61.
12. 1901 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington j-2 p.14 hh.129.
13. 1911 Census of Canada, NB/Kent/Wellington, Enum.Dist.24, p.22 hh.191.
14. 1861 Census of New Brunswick, Wellington Parish, p.96, hh.624. NBGS/PANB transcription, 1993.
15. PANB Index to New Brunswick Marriages (RS141B7), microfilm F196889 ref.B4/1926 no.1941.
16. 1861 Census of New Brunswick, Wellington Parish, p.59, hh.369.
17. D.F. Johnson, Vital Statistics From New Brunswick Newspapers, vol.19 no.1994.

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This page last updated 2007 February 12.