A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. I
His remains were taken to Trinity Church, " where the impressive funeral service of the Church of England was read, and were subsequently interred in the newburial ground, followed to the grave by one of the largest and most respectable funeral processions ever seen in this city ; inchiding in distinct bodies, the justices of the peace for the city and county of St John, the common council of the city headed by his worship the Mayor, and his honor the Recorder, the members of the legal profession, (the barristers being in their gowns) at the head of whom, was his honor Mr. Justice Carter, supported by the Honorable the Attorney General, and Solicitor General, the grand jury for the city and county, then attending the Circuit Court, and the officers and men of the New Brunswick regiment of artillery of St. John, as well as a vast concourse of other citizens, all anxious to pay the last sad tribute of respect, to one who was so intimately associated with the early history of the country, &c."^
The Ward family originally came from Kent, England, and
^ Abstract of Sales of Confiscated Estates, 138. b Sabine's Hist, of Amer. Loyalists, 673.
Vol. I. 21
162 HISTORY OF THE
claim descent from William de la Ward, who flourished temp. Henry II. 1154 to 1189.
The first member in this county appears to have been Andrew VVard,^ of Watertown, Mass., who accoinpanied the early settlers to Connecticut, and was elected a magistrate in 1636; he subsequently removed with the Rev, Richard Denton to Hempstead, L. I. In 1649, we find him residing at Fairfield, Connecticut. His sons were Samuel, of Easlchester, John, and Edmund the grandfather of the former proprietor of the Somerville estate.