USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 49
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(II) Thomas (2), son of Thomas (I) Fuller, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, April 30, 1644, died in March, 1721. He mar- ried (first) in 1669, Ruth, daughter of Thomas and Mary Richardson, of Woburn. Married (second) July 19, 1699, Martha Durgy. Chil- dren of first wife: I. Thomas, born February 3, 1671 ; married, May 3, 1693, Elizabeth An- drews. 2. Jonathan, born July 19, 1673 ; mar- ried, January 3, 1694, Susannah Trask. 3. John, born December 22, 1676; married, Janu- ary 22, 1704, Phoebe Symonds. 4. Joseph, born August 12, 1679, see forward. 5. Will- iam, born November 30, 1685; married (first) October 16, 1714, Elizabeth Goodale; (sec- ond) June 15, 1741, Deborah Hill. Child of second wife: 6. Stephen, born August 10, 1700, married, January 1, 1723, Hannah Moul- ton.
(III) Joseph, son of Thomas (2) Fuller, was born August 12, 1679, died March 27, 1748. He married (first) February 17, 17II, Rachel Buxton. Married (second) November 3, 1713, Susannah Dorman, who died October 6, 1765, aged eighty-four years. Child of first wife: Joseph, born February 12, 1712. Chil- dren of second wife: I. Rachel, born August I, 1714. 2. Ruth, born March 5, 1716. 3. Amos, born 1717, baptized February 16, 1718. 4. Thomas, born 1720, baptized April 10, 1720. 5. Ephraim, born March 7, 1722, see forward. (IV) Ephraim, son of Joseph Fuller, was born March 7, 1722, died February 20, 1792. He served as a civil officer during the revolu- tionary war, and rendered such services to his country as made his descendants eligible to membership in the Society of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. He resided in a house which was erected presum- ably by his father, not later than 1740, and there all his children were born. He married Mary, born 1722, died December 14, 1786, daughter of Ensign Ezra Putnam, who died October 22, 1747. Children: I. Nehemiah, born October 5, 1750; married Ruth Bixby, born 1754, died July 15, 1783. 2. Elizabeth,
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born August 7, 1752. 3. Abijah, born Sep- tember 22, 1754, died June 6, 1817. 4. Simeon, born August 12, 1759, see forward.
(V) Simeon, son of Ephraim Fuller, was born August 12, 1759. He married, June IO, 1793, Rebecca, born in Middleton, September 16, 1769, died October 30, 1844, daughter of Nathaniel and Susanna (Estey) Berry. Chil- dren : I. Dean, born April 19, 1791, died March 17, 1864; tradition says that he was called out in the war of 1812 on the alarm list; married, December 17, 1822, Lydia Berry, born Sep- tember 1, 1801, in Andover, died March 20, 1878. 2. Ephraim, born January 15, 1793, died March 4, 1865; tradition says that he was called out in the war of 1812 on the alarm list ; married, April 27, 1820, Sally Kimball, born 1793 in Andover, died November 7, 1866. 3. Fanny, born October 22, 1784, died May 27, 1824; married, June 6, 1817, Jesse Flint, born May 15, 1788, died July 27, 1858. 4. Abijah, born February 6, 1801, died July 13, 1878; married (first) December 14, 1826, Abigail Frances Weston, born September 3, 1808, in Amherst, New Hampshire, died July 7, 1846; married (second) October 8, 1850, Sarah Blake, born September 22, 1818, in Sandwich, New Hampshire, died October 22, 1880. 5. Jesse, born March 18, 1803, see forward. Re- becca (Berry) Fuller traced her ancestry to William Towne and Johanna Blessing, who were married March 25, 1620, in St. Nicholas Church, Yarmouth, England, one of the finest buildings in that city, founded in IIOI. They came to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1632, and moved to Topsfield in 1652. Of their eight children the eldest, Rebecca, born in 1621, married Francis Nourse, and was executed for alleged witchcraft. The sixth child, Mary, born in 1634, married Isaac Estey, and was also executed for alleged witchcraft. The sev- enth child, Sarah, was also apprehended for the same crime, but was afterward released. The third child of Isaac and Mary (Towne) Estey, John, born January 2, 1662, married Mary Dorman. Their seventh child, Jonathan, born May 4, 1707, married Susanna Monroe, of. Lexington, Massachusetts. Their fourth child, Susanna, born January 26, 1741, mar- ried Nathaniel Berry. Their fifth child, Re- becca, became the wife of Simeon Fuller, above mentioned.
(VI) Jesse, son of Simeon Fuller, was born March 18, 1803, died August 18, 1872. He married, July 14, 1835, Elizabeth A. Bartine, born November 24, 1816, died June 18, 1906. Children, all born in New York City : I. 1-16
Thomas Simeon, born April 14, 1836, died June 1, 1903; married, September 15, 1855, Effie Birdsall, of New York City. 2. Jesse, born August 22, 1838, died October 27, 1839. 3. Rebecca Elizabeth, born September 30, 1840; married, August 22, 1883, William B. P.utney, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, died Septem- ber 10, 1904. 4. Charles Wesley, born July 2, 1843, see forward. 5. Henry Dean, born Janu- ary 6, 1846. 6. Sarah, born April 20, 1848; married, December 17, 1879, Joseph Newhall Smith, of Lynn, Massachusetts, born in Dan- vers, Massachusetts. 7. Jesse, born April 2, 1851; married, December 2, 1873, Ida A. Goldey, of New York City. 8. Lydia Emily, born June 20, 1853 ; married, October 9, 1889, Sydney Fisher, of New York City. 9. George Albert, born June 1, 1857; married, June 7, 1882, Fannie Searles, of New York City.
(VII) Charles Wesley, son of Jesse Fuller, was born in New York City, July 2, 1843. He received his early education and training in the public schools and College of the City of New York and in the public life of Manhattan. He was engaged in business in New York City until 1871, when he removed to Bayonne, New Jersey, where he now resides. The legal life of New Jersey fascinated him, and he gave up business for the profession of law. In 1879 he was admitted to the New Jersey bar and in 1885 to the bar of New York. He is one of the best and most widely known corporation lawyers of New Jersey. Aside from his continual and active interest in politics, as citizen, legis- lator, sinking fund commissioner, or member of the state sewerage commission, he has always taken a deep interest in education, whether as a member of the Bayonne board of education, a trustee in the state normal school, or as state superintendent of public instruction, to which position he was appointed in 1888. He is one of the famous after-dinner speakers of New Jer- sey, and a political campaigner of convincing power and charm of address. During the civil war he offered his services in behalf of his country, enlisting in the Seventh New York Regiment. In the draft riots of 1863 and the riots of 1871 he rendered valuable services, for which he was highly complimented. In 1868 he was appointed adjutant of the Fifty- fifth Regiment, National Guard of New York; in 1869 was promoted to the rank of major and in 1874 made colonel, commanding the regiment until 1874. Colonel Fuller is a Repub- lican in politics. He was a member of the New Jersey legislature in 1888. He is a mem- ber of George Washington Post, Grand Army
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of the Republic, Department of New York, and is also a member of many clubs, including the Union League, of Jersey City, the Lotus, Lawyers' and Twilight clubs, of New York. From the Yankee stock of Salem and the Huguenots of New Rochelle. Colonel Fuller inherits those qualities of courage, intellect and good nature that have made him successful as soldier, lawyer, orator and wit.
Colonel Fuller married, May 29, 1867, Ma- tilda B. Williams, of New York City. Chil- dren: I. Harry Williams, born June 14, 1868; married, October 16, 1901, Mira Belle Shepard, of New York City. 2. Fannie Searles, born June 2, 1871 ; married, June 15, 1898, Major Lee Toadvine, of Saulsbury, Maryland; chil- dren: Matilda Fuller, born in Saulsbury, Maryland, May 9, 1899; Elizabeth Wesley, born in Saulsbury, Maryland, July 2, 1900; Martha Lee, born in Bayonne, New Jersey.
WARD As their name indicates, the Wards owe their origin to the old vikings who made themselves masters not only of the sea but also of much of Europe. When William the Norman came over into England he had Wards among the lists of his "noble captains," and there were other Wards among the descendants of the old sea kings who fought against him at Hastings. Later on, among the banners of the stalwart Anglo- Saxon men who fought and bled and died in the Crusades, not the least renowned was that of de la Warde, or de Wardes; "he bearethi arms : azure, a cross patonce or, a mullet for difference ; crest : a saracen's head affrontée, couped below the shoulders, proper ; motto : Sub cruce salus-salvation is beneath the cross." In 1173 William de la Warde appears in Ches- ter, and from that time on his family and de- scendants increased in wealth and importance until eleven or twelve generations later William Ward, of Dudley castle, was created the first earl of Derby. The family spread out through Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Northamp- tonshire, until Robert Warde, of Houghton Parva, in the last-named county, married Isabel or Sybil Stapley, of Dunchurch, county War- wick. Among their issue was a son James, who married Alice Fawkes or Faulks, and had a son Stephen, who married Joice or Joyce Traford, of Leicestershire, and by her became the father of the famous Sergeant John Ward, sometimes called John Ward Sr., of Wethers- field, Branford and Newark, and progenitor of a large and illustrious branch of New Jersey men.
Tradition tells us that about the time Ste- phen Ward's widow and children emigrated to New England, there came over also a brother of Stephen's and three of his first cousins, Lawrence, George and Isabel Ward. This brother is said to have been the Andrew Ward who was in Watertown in 1634, in Wethers- field the next year, and finally settled in Stam- ford, Connecticut, in 1641. The father of the three first cousins just mentioned is progenitor of that branch of the Branford-Newark Wards in which we are at present interested.
(I) Lawrence and George Ward, ship car- penters, came to this country with their sister and took the oath of fidelity and signed the fundamental agreement of the New Haven colony in 1639. Seven years later they and their sister Isabel removed to the new town of Totoket or Branford, which had been set- tled in 1643 by a company from Wethersfield, among whom was Sergeant John Ward, already referred to, and the congregation of Rev. Abra- hamn Pierson, from Southampton, Long Island. About this time Isabel Ward, whose only son by her first marriage was afterwards known as John Catlin, or Catling, of Newark and Deer- field, whither he removed before 1684, married a second time, her husband being Joseph Bald- win, of Milford, whose sons were later among the emigrants to Newark, although he himself removed in 1663 to Hadley, Massachusetts. Her two brothers, especially Lawrence Ward, became active and prominent in the affairs of their new home. After the restoration of Charles I. to the English throne, the regicides, Whalley and Goffe, were excepted from the act of indemnity, escaping arrest they fled to Amer- ica, where they lived in retirement, hiding in New Haven and other towns of the Connecti- cut river valley. The home government made strenuous efforts to arrest them even here, but they were always defeated by the concealed and dissembled opposition of the colonists. At one time Micah Tompkins hid the regicides when the chase was warm, "giving them aid and comfort; his girls not aware that angels were in the basement ;" and Lawrence Ward, who had been impressed by the colonial repre- sentatives of the home government to make the search at Milford, performed his task so successfully that the authorities deemed and reported that he had made a most thorough search without finding them. Lawrence Ward was chosen in 1665-66 as representative of Branford town in the New Haven colonial assembly, and from that time on he becomes one of the leading spirits and dominating char-
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acters of the community wherein he had thrown his lot, not only in Branford, but later on, when they had built themselves a final habitation and resting place in their new ark of refuge on the bank of the Passaic. Here Lawrence Ward became second in importance only to Robert Treat and Rev. Abraham Pierson, leaders re- spectively of the Milford and Guilford-Bran- ford contingents of the Newark colony. When he died, in 1669 or 1670, Lawrence Ward, in addition to his other public offices and posts, was the first deacon of the "church after the congregational way," which he had done so much to establish in its new home; and al- though he left no children, his widow Eliza- beth, often referred to in the old records as "the Widow Ward," enjoyed for many years the love and respect of those whom her hus- band had served.
George Ward appears either to have remain- ed in Branford, or, as is more probable, to have died there before the emigration, leaving sons John and Josiah, both of whom came with their uncle Lawrence to Newark, and became prominent in town affairs and progenitors of numerous gifted descendants. Josiah married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Samuel Swaine. who in 1668 was Newark's representative in the assembly of East Jersey. She is said to have been the first person on shore at the land- ing of the pilgrims on the Passaic; she bore her husband one son, Samuel, who married and had eight children who reached maturity and left record; and when her husband died, shortly after their arrival at Newark, she be- came wife of David Ogden, of Elizabethtown, through whom she became mother of another illustrious line. To John Ward, the other son of George, of Branford, we shall now refer.
(II) At this period, what is now the state of Connecticut, consisted of two colonies, Con- necticut and New. Haven, the former compris- ing the settlements at the mouth and on the banks of the Connecticut river, and the latter including not only New Haven proper but also the towns of Milford, Branford, Guilford and Stamford in its vicinity, and the town of South- old, Long Island. In the last mentioned colony republican views were greatly in the ascendant, and although on August 21st, 1661, the towns acknowledged formally that Charles II. was "lawful King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and all other territories thereto be- longing," bitter dissensions were aroused by his restoration and great apprehensions were felt as to the effect of that event on the future of the colony. In consequence of all this, some
of the most prominent men in the New Haven colony seriously debated the advisability of establishing a new home elsewhere more fav- orable to the exercise and dissemination of the civil and religious liberties they cherished ; and the first to carry this design into effect was a company of men from Milford, with Robert Treat at their head, who after negotiations first with the Dutch authorities of New Nether- lands at Albany and later with Governor Philip Carteret of New Jersey and the Indian owners, procured land, May 21, 1666, for their new settlement on the banks of the Passaic, at what is now the site of the city of Newark. Mean- while the men of Branford, under the leader- ship of their pastor, Rev. Abraham Pierson, had been making negotiations with the Milford people in order to join in their undertaking, and October 30, 1666, twenty-three Branford families subscribed the terms of agreement and came to the new settlement where, though not so numerous as the forty-one signers from Milford, their more perfect organization as a church enabled them, the later comers, to change the name of the place from Milford to Newark, after the place where their pastor had received his early training. By becoming one of this Branford band and signing his name to this document, John Ward (or as he then spelt it, John Warde) began a career of public life and usefulness which if not so lengthy as that of some of his contemporaries was hardly sur- passed by any in its zeal and value. At the very start, in 1666, he was appointed one of the branders of the community, where his main business, the keeping of the records of the cattle brands, was in the then unsettled condi- tion of the colony by no means unimpor- tant and likely at times to prove highly respon- sible and even burdensome. This, however, was only one of his tasks. In the difficult busi- ness of allotting and dividing the land among the original settlers and the later comers and of procuring other lands to meet the town's growing needs, John Ward played a prominent and highly satisfactory part, record of which is to be found among the entries in the old New- ark town book, 1673-79. Lack of space pre- vents a proper treatment being given to this topic, but one at least of the controversies with which John Ward's name and work were con- nected ought not to be passed by without men- tion. In September, 1673, the town meeting determined "that a Petition should be sent to the Generals at Orange, that if it might be, we might have the Neck," by which name the land between the Passaic and the Hackensack rivers
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was then known. This was the beginning of a long and bitter quarrel that was not finally ended until December, 1681-2, and was the famous "wrangle over the Neck" in which were involved not only the townspeople of Newark, but also Major Nathaniel Kingsland, of Barbadoes, W. I .; Nicholas Bayard, and Jacob Melyn, the son of old Cornelius Melyn, of New York ; the Dutch court of admiralty in Holland, and a number of other prominent colonial and old world officials. Throughout the whole of this difficulty John Ward seems to have played one of the principal parts. About a mouth after the petition had been sent, he and his cousin John Catlin, who three years later was to become the first schoolmaster of Newark, were, October 13, 1673, appointed a committee to purchase Major Kingsland's inter- est in the property, and about ten days later we find him on the committee in charge of the final settlement of the bargain and the distribution of the new land thus obtained; and on com- mittee after committee relating to the differ- ences over the Neck, from this time forward his name stands either first or second in appoint- ment. The patent for his property was not recorded until September 10, 1675, when he and Robert Lyman and Stephen Davis all three received theirs together, and the record was made in the East Jersey Patents, liber I, p. 139, from which we learn that his dwelling house was situated "north of the Elder's lot, south of Richard Lawrence," or, according to our pres- ent-day landmarks, on Park place, facing Mili- tary Park, and opposite Cedar street, and just about where Proctor's theatre now stands. Later on, in 1679, when a part of the "Elder's lot" was given by the town to John Johnson, it was agreed that "John Ward, Turner, hath the Grant of the remainder of the Elder's Lott which is more than John Johnson is to have, for one of his Sons to build on." The designa- tion "Turner," sometimes elaborated into "Dish- turner" from his trade, is as in the above ex- tract always appended to John Ward's name in the old records in order to distinguish him from Sergeant John Ward, his contemporary and fellow townsman; and in the same way and for the same reason, their two sons were generally spoken of as John Ward Jr. and John Ward, Turner, junior. In 1670 John Ward was constable for the town, and was ap- pointed again in 1679. On April 28, 1675, he, together with Thomas Johnson, Stephen Free- man, John Curtis, Samuel Kitchell, Thomas Huntington and Samuel Plum, were chosen as townsmen for the year, and June 12, in the
year following, he was returned for the same office, together with Samuel Kitchell, Samuel Plum and Thomas Huntington, the new men being Joseph Walters, Azariah Crane and Will- iam Camp. In 1677 he was again given his old office of brander, and at the same time was appointed one of the grand jurymen for the year. In 1679 he was chosen one of the fence viewers, and in 1684 he was reappointed to the office of warner of the town meeting, an office he had previously held in 1676. One of the early trials and responsibilities of the settle- ment was the supplying of the parson's wood. This had been arranged for by taxing each family in the community one load delivered at the parsonage. For a time this worked satis- factorily, but later on delinquents became numerous, and finally, November 24, 1679, a committee of eight men, two for each quarter of the year, was appointed to see that every man delivered his load, the committee to be exempted from their contribution for their pains and care. The members of this com- mittee for the third quarter of the year were Deacon Richard Lawrence and John Ward. The will of John Ward, the "Turner," wasproved July 16, 1684, when letters of administration were granted to his widow Sarah, supposed by some to have been a daughter or niece of Rob- ert Lyman, one of the Milford-Newark settlers. His children, three of whom are named in his will, were: Sarah, John, Samuel, Abigail, Josiah, Nathaniel and Caleb. Of Sarah, born 1651, we have no more information ; but little more is known of John, 1654-1690, whom Mr. Conger conjectures had a son named Samuel Ward; Samuel, second son of John Ward, the "Turner," was born 1656 and died October 14. 1686, leaving his wife Phebe to administer his estate; Abigail Ward became the first wife of John Gardner, who joined the Newark settlers in 1677, and held several important offices, one of them being sheriff of Essex county in 1695; to Josiah Ward we shall refer later ; Nathaniel died in 1732, having married Sarah, grand- daughter of Sergeant Richard Harrison, one of the Branford-Newark settlers, and daugh- ter of Samuel Harrison by his wife Mary, daughter of Sergeant John Ward. Nathaniel and Sarah (née Harrison) Ward had two sons, Nathaniel and Abner, and a daughter Eunice, who married into the Woodruff family. Caleb, youngest son of John Ward, the "Turner," died February 9, 1735, leaving ten children, the youngest of which, Hannah, also married a Woodruff. In 1709 Caleb was the Newark overseer of the poor.
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(III) The land purchased by the Newark settlers was an extended tract within the limits of which are now situated Belleville, Bloom- field, the Oranges, Caldwell, and a number of other towns and villages of the present day. The first division of lands was naturally within the bounds of Newark proper, where the set- tlers were then dwelling together for mutual protection and help. It was on the "home lot" received at this division that John Ward him- self seems to have lived and died. At one of the subsequent divisions he was given forty- four acres "beyond second river," the name by which the stream at Belleville was then known. This property is described as being bounded on the north by Elizabeth Ward (widow of dea- con Lawrence Ward), on the south and west by common land, and on the east by the river and a swamp; and apparently John Ward turned it over to his son Josiah, as from the patent made out to Joseph and Hannah Bond on May 1, 1697, we learn that Josiah Ward was at that time living there and owning the property, and on that date there was only one of his name alive and able to do this, namely Josiah, son of John Ward, the "Turner." Of public record this man has left little except his will, from which we learn that September 19, 1713, when he wrote it, he was fifty-one years old, which would bring his birth in 1661 or 1662. His death was some time prior to April 8, 1715, when his eldest son Samuel chose Abraham Kitchell as his guardian, although for some reason or other the father's will was not proved until April 16, in the following year. Josiah Ward married (first) Mary, granddaughter of Robert Kitchell, the settler in Newark, by the first wife of his son Samuel, Elizabeth Wakeman, of New Haven. The Abraham Kitchell who became the guardian of Josiah's son Samuel was Mary Kitchell's half- brother, being son of Samuel Kitchell by his second wife Grace, daughter of Rev. Abra- ham Pierson. Josiah and Mary (née Kitchell) Ward had five children-a daughter Sarah, and four sons who were minors in 1713, Sam- uel, Robert, Josiah and Laurence, the last name being spelt according to that in his father's will, although later generations have preferred the form Lawrence. The second wife of Josiah, son of John Ward, was named America, and in some accounts her surname is given as Law- rence, and she is said to have borne her hus- band two children, Lawrence and Sarah. In his will Josiah says that Sarah is the daughter of his first wife, and that his second wife's daughter was called Mary, and that she is ex-
pecting another child. This last child may have been named Lawrence from his mother's maiden name, and if so the fact would account for the preference shown by the family in later days for that spelling of the name.
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