Ward and Associated Families

of Sassafras Neck, Cecil County, Maryland

I'm interested in collaborating about the families and history of the area between the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River, particularly in the 1600 and 1700s.

The house above is Woodlawn, the home of the Ward family for over 6 generations.

The picture is of Henry Davis Ward, Sr., his wife Isabelle Myers Ward, and their three boys, William, John, and Henry Davis Ward, Jr. They are descendants of the William Ward family of Cecil County, Maryland.

Particularly Interesting Family Members and Descendants of other Families of the Area

Thomas Ward Veazey - Governor of MD 1836-39. Son of Edward Veazey and Elizabeth De Coursey, grandson of Col. John Veazey Jr. and Rebecca Ward, great grandson of Col. John Ward and Alice.

Augustine Herman (spellings also found – Hermann and Hermen). Herman is one of Cecil County’s founding fathers, and he lived at his treasured homestead "Bohemia Manor", on the Bohemia River, until his death in 1686. His second marriage was to Catherine Ward. One of his daughters from his first marriage, Anna Margaretta Hermen, married Henry Ward and then Matthias Vanderheyden, after Henry died.

George Read - Signer of the Declaration of Independence; 1733 – 1798; He was a judge and Revolutionary War Statesman. He was born in Cecil County, and later moved to Delaware. He served as a member of the 2nd Continental Congress, and became a US Senator and State Chief Justice.

Jehu Davis was not only a judge, he served in the Delaware General Assembly and is listed as the ninth President of Delaware. He is an ancestor of Henrietta George Davis who married Thomas Ward "Sixth of Woodlawn".

Betsy Ross who sewed the first American flag. Elizabeth Griscom married John Ross, son of Aeneas and Sarah (Leach) Ross, grandson of George and Joanna (Williams) Ross.

Francis Scott Key is the son of John Ross Key and grandson of Francis Key and Anne Arnold Ross.

[Peter MacEwan] My great-grandfather was not only a brilliant chemist; he had literary abilities of a high order. During his residence in Edinburgh he published a considerable number of original papers, the result of research on chemical and pharmaceutical subjects, and he was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1886.

[Colonel Allan McLane] was an officer and Revolutionary War Hero of the Revolution of 1776. He saved Lafayette from capture by the English when Lafayette came to America in 1824 and visited Allan McLane. Mary Thomspon McLane sat in his lap! [Information from Bill Ward, son of Allan McLane Ward who was my grandfather's brother.]

Colonel Harry Gilmor; After homesteading in Wisconsin and Nebraska, he returned to Maryland in time to join the newly formed Baltimore County Horse Guards as a corporal. The mission of that horse column is the subject of one of the most unique cavalry raids of the Civil War. He was elected colonel of cavalry in the Maryland National Guard. He also served as Baltimore City Police Commissioner from 1874 to 1879. He was a member of the Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States in Maryland and it's Vice-President in 1882. A fascinating read about local history for Baltimoreans: Gilmor's Ride Around Baltimore.

John Jabez Caldwell (1836-1910/1920) formerly associated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore and at one time Health Officer of the Republic of Baltimore.

Jonathan Caldwell and the "Blue Hen's Chickens" of Delaware