Events
Date of Birth: about 1804.
Place of Birth: Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England.
The approximate date and place come from the 1851, 1861, and 1871 censuses.
Date of Baptism: unknown.
Place of Baptism: unknown.
Date of Burial: 26 October 1877
Place of Burial: Kidderminster, St George's Church.
The burial is recorded in the parish register.
Relationships
Father: Joseph Ward.
Mother: Susannah Harris.
(See the Commentary section.)
Spouse: Mary Ward (1803 - 1881). Married 28 February 1831 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.
The marriage is given in the parish register.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Daniel Ward (baptized 12 September 1832 in Kidderminster - died 28 February 1870 in Shrewsbury) married Sarah Ann Breeze 24 December 1857 in Kidderminster.
Joseph Ward (baptized 19 December 1834 in Kidderminster - died 1874) married Fanny Hope in 25 May 1861 in Hay, Breconshire.
Hannah Ward (baptized 29 July 1836 in Kidderminster - buried 2 October 1854 in Kidderminster).
James Ward (born 28 April 1838, baptized 21 May in Kidderminster) married Sarah Ann Stephens in 1863.
Thomas Ward (born 11 October 1840, baptized 5 November 1840 in Kidderminster - buried 15 March 1875 in Kidderminster).
George Ward (baptized 20 January 1843 in Kidderminster - died 1925) married Alice Allen in 1861.
Mary Ward (baptized 27 June 1846 in Kidderminster - died 1921) married Thomas Richard Fasey in 1882.
Evidence
From the Worcester Journal (9 September 1830, page 2):
JAMES WARD
Currier and Leather-Seller,
RESPECTFULLY informs the Inhabitants of Kidderminster, and its Environs, that he has taken Premises in WATERLOO-STREET, (opposite Tan-yard), where it his intention to carry on the above Business in all its Departments; and having laid in a very excellent ASSORTMENT of GOODS, he trusts, by assiduity and attention, to merit a share of that Support which it will ever be his study to deserve.
from the Bromsgrove (St John the Baptist) parish register:
James Ward of the Parish of Kidderminster in the County & Diocese of Worcester and Mary Ward of this Parish were married in this Church by License with the Consent of [blank] this twenty eighth Day of February in the Year One thousand eight hundred and thirty one
By me John Netherton Harward Curate
This Marriage was solemnized between us James Ward Mary Ward
In the Presence of Thos Ward Ann Ward William Rose
from the Kidderminster (St George’s Chapel and St Mary) registers:
When Baptized: 12th [December 1832]
Child’s Christian Name: Daniel
Parents’ Name: James and Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo Street
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Currier
When Baptized: Dec.r 19 [1834]
Child’s Christian Name: Joseph Son of
Parents’ Name: James and Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo Street
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Currier
When Baptized: July 29th [1836]
Child’s Christian Name: Hannah daughter of
Parents’ Name: James and Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo Street
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Currier
When Baptized: May 21.st 1838]
Child’s Christian Name: James
Parents’ Name: James & Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo St.
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Currier
When Baptized: Nov. 5 [1840] born October 11.th 1840
Child’s Christian Name: Thomas
Parents’ Name: James & Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo St.
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Currier.
When Baptized: January 20 [1843]
Child’s Christian Name: George
Parents’ Name: James & Mary Ward
Abode: Coventry Street
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Fishmonger
When Baptized: June 27 [1846]
Child’s Christian Name: Mary
Parents’ Name: James & Mary Ward
Abode: Waterloo Street
Quality, Trade, or Profession: Writing Clerk
Pigot & Co.’s Commercial Directory (1835, Kidderminster):
Curriers
Ward James, Waterloo st
from the Entry of Birth of James Ward:
1838
Kidderminster
When and where born: twenty eighth of April 1838 Waterloo Street Borough
Name: James
Sex: Boy
Name and surname of father: James Ward
Name, surname, and maiden surname of mother: Mary Ward formerly Ward
Occupation of father: Currier
Signature, description and residence of informant: James Ward of Waterloo Street Father
When registered: twenty sixth of May 1838
Wednesday 30 December 1840 Worcester Chronicle:
IN THE INSOLVENCY OF JAMES WARD.
WHEREAS by Indenture, bearing the date the Twenty-sixth day of December instant, between JAMES WARD, of Kidderminster, in the County of Worcester, Currier, and JOHN ROGERS, of Kidderminster aforesaid, Tanner, of the second part, and the several Persons whose names and seals are thereunto affixed, or who shall assent to the said Deed as therein mentioned, Creditors of the said James Ward did assign, transfer, and set over unto the said Robert Allies and John Rogers, their Executors, Administrators, and Assigns, all and singular the Stock in Trade, Household Furniture, Debts, Monies, and all other, the personal Estate and Effects of the said James Ward, in trust, nevertheless, for the benefit of the Creditors of the said James Ward, who shall execute or assent in writing to the said Deed within two calendar months from the date thereof. Notice is therefore hereby given that the said Deed of Assignment is now lying at the Office of the undersigned MR. WILLIAM BRINTON, Solictor, Park Butts, in Kidderminster aforesaid, for execution by the Creditors of the said James Ward. All persons who are indebted to the said James Ward are not to pay the amount of their respective debts except to whom the Trustees shall appoint to receive the same on their behalf. Dated this 26th day of December, 1840.
WM. BRINTON,
Solicitor to the said Trustees.
1841 census of England (Kidderminster, Worcestershire)
Lion St
James Ward, 35, Commission Agent, Y [“Y” means born in Worcestershire]
Mary [Ward], 35, Y
Daniel [Ward], 8, Y
Joseph [Ward], 6, Y
James [Ward], 3, Y
Thomas [Ward], 7 Months, Y
1851 census of England (Kidderminster, Worcestershire)
Coventry St
James Ward, Head, Mar, 47, Currier, [born] Worc’r Kidderminster
Mary [Ward], Wife, Mar, 48, [born Worc’r] Bromsgrove
Daniel [Ward], Son, Un, 18, Ironmonger App, [born Worc’r] Kidderminster
Joseph [Ward], Son, 16, [Ironmonger App], [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
Hannah [Ward], daur, 14, Scholar, [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
James [Ward], Son, 12, [Scholar]. [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
Thomas [Ward], Son, 10, [Scholar], [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
George [Ward], Son, 8, [Scholar], [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
Mary [Ward], daur, 5, [born Worc’r Kidderminster]
1861 census of England (Kidderminster, Worcestershire)
Coventry Street
James Ward, Head, Mar, 57, Accountant, [born] Worcester Kidderminster
Thomas Ward, Son, Un, 20, Stone Mason, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
Mary Ward, Daughter, Un, 15, Scholar, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
1871 census of England (Kidderminster, Worcestershire)
Coventry St
James Ward, head, Mar, 67, Solicitors Writing Clerk, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
Mary [Ward], Wife, Mar, 68, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
Thomas [Ward], Son, Unm, 30, Worsted Dyer, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
Mary [Ward], daur, Unm, 25, Dressmaker, [born Worcester Kidderminster]
Harry Breeze Ward, G’d Son, 8, Scholar, [born] Salop Shrewsbury
James's burial (Kidderminster, St George, 1877)
Name: James Ward
Abode: Coventry St.
When buried: Oct. 26.th
Age: 74 yrs.
By whom the Ceremony was performed: W.E. Thompson
Commentary
Date and place of birth:
This information is derived from censuses:
1841 (taken 6 June): James is recorded as aged 35 (Ages in this census were rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5.)
1851 (taken 30 March): aged 47, born in Kidderminster.
1861 (taken 7 April): aged 57, born in Kidderminster.
1871 (taken 2 April): aged 67, born in Kidderminster.
The ages are likely correct, as the age of James’s wife is consistently given correctly and one year older than her husband. The place is also likely correct, as there is no inconsistency, and James’s residence was said to be Kidderminster in his 1831 Bromsgrove marriage.
The census information implies a birth date between 7 April 1803 and 30 March 1804.
Parentage:
A baptism record for James has not been found in or near Kidderminster. This is probably not very significant as negative evidence. It is widely thought (although some have argued otherwise) that there are an unusually large number of “missing” baptisms in the years around 1800 in England. The Kidderminster registers for the period show periodic gaps of two or three weeks in baptisms, which may be a sign that some baptisms were not recorded. Baptisms in the period were typically recorded on pieces of paper that were then, every few weeks, copied into the register. The pieces of paper could occasionally have been mislaid. Of course, there are other explanations for the the gaps which would not require any baptisms to be missing.
There is another piece of evidence in this case, however, which lends support to the idea that James was born in Kidderminster, but that he was not baptized or (more likely) the record of his baptism does not survive. The most likely candidate for James’s parents are Joseph and Susannah Ward. They are recorded having children baptized in Kidderminster during the period. One was baptized 6 July 1801 and one 18 October 1804. This leaves space for James to have been born in 1803, especially considering that the baptisms of Joseph and Susannah’s previous children were closely spaced. Here are the gaps between baptisms up until 1801: 12 months, 16 months, 19 months, 22 months, 24 months. Joseph was a currier, as was James. Joseph had a son, John, who married a daughter of William Ward of Bromsgrove (Joseph’s brother). James also married a daughter of William Ward of Bromsgrove.
Joseph had a daughter Eliza, born in 1806, whose baptism does not appear in the Kidderminster register. (Her birthplace is recorded in censuses, and in the 1881 census she was living with two children of Joseph's brother James Ward, who are described as her cousins. Joseph was the only sibling who moved to Kidderminster. This indicates Eliza was Joseph’s daughter.) Clearly it is a possibility that Joseph and Susannah had another child (other than Eliza) whose Kidderminster baptism is unrecorded.
Joseph’s will does not mention James, but this is probably also not very significant as negative evidence. Joseph’s will refers to his son John and “all other my children as shall be living at the Time of my Decease”. The only other child named in the will is Joseph’s son Thomas. Joseph’s newspaper obituary describes his family as “numerous”.
Joseph in his will made his wife, his son John, and his brother William trustees of his property. Joseph’s brother William, in his will (made in 1841 and proved in 1842), states that he had bought “several messuages tenements or dwelling houses with the Curriers Shop Gardens and all other the appurtenances thereto respectively belonging situate in the Borough of Kidderminster in the said County of Worcester heretofore belonging to my Brother Joseph Ward deceased” from the [other] trustees named in Joseph’s will. He directed that the annuity that Joseph had left to his wife continue to be paid, and he leaves his daughter Mary, who had married James Ward, in control of the messuages, including the currier’s shop, during her life. After her death they were to go to her children as tenants in common.
Joseph’s son Thomas Ward was living in Coventry Street, presumably with his step-mother Ann in one of the houses mentioned above, at the time of his death in 1838. Ann was living there in 1841, according to the census. James and Mary Ward had moved to Coventry Street by 1843, possibly a little earlier. James had gone out of business as a currier in 1840, but in 1851 he was working as a currier again, in Joseph's old shop.
Taken together, I think there is very strong indirect evidence that James was Joseph’s son.
References
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire parish registers, FHL film 321127, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pigot and Co.’s National Commercial Directory, (London, 1835). Page 646.
The Worcester Chronicle (30 December 1840), page 3, column 5; digital image on Findmypast.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2014).
James Ward household, 1841 census of England. Worcestershire, Kidderminster, Kidderminster, Kidderminster; HO107, piece 1208, book 9, folio 16, page 24, in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1841; digital image Ancestry.com (accessed 13 April 2014).
James Ward household, 1851 census of England. Worcestershire, Kidderminster, Kidderminster, ED 1r, piece 2038, folio 447, page 25, in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1851; digital image Ancestry.com (accessed 13 April 2014).
James Ward household, 1861 census of England. Worcestershire, Kidderminster, Kidderminster, ED 10, piece 2078, folio 68, page 13, in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861; digital image Ancestry.com (accessed 13 April 2014).
James Ward household, 1871 census of England. Worcestershire, Kidderminster, Kidderminster, ED 10, piece 3034, folio 116, page 29, in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871; digital image Ancestry.com (accessed 13 April 2014).
GRO index, Deaths Dec 1877, Kidderminster, Volume 6c page 129. General Register Office. England and Wales. Civil Registration Certificates. (London, United Kingdom: General Register Office).
Kidderminster St George parish register. Digital images on FamilySearch.