History - Family and Country

We are on our way to New Brunswick, but decided to take some time in Massachusetts to visit two communities founded by Nancy's ancestors. William Ward, the first Ward ancestor in America, arrived in Boston in 1638. He thought it was too crowded because at the time 1,000 people lived there! He and John Howe, another ancestor, decided to found a town several miles from Boston, and thus founded the Sudbury Plantation. William became a prominent citizen, amassing 300 acres. He and Elizabeth had 13 children. in 1660, William felt that Sudbury was getting too crowded, and that he did not have enough land to share with all of his sons, so he founded Marlborough Plantation, a village about 10 miles away from Sudbury. When he started the town, there were about 100 inhabitants. Now, both Sudbury and Marlborough are large suburbs of Boston.

The village of Marlborough bought some of William's original land and turned it into a park. I was thus able to walk on land that had at one time belonged to my 9th great-grandfather! The park is called Ward Park and is named for William's grandson, Artemas Ward, the first commander-in-chief of Massachusetts Bay Colony during the American Revolution.

We also drove by Mount Ward, a hill named for William's son Eleazer, who was killed on that hill during King Philip's War.

I thought celebrating Candor's 200th year was a milestone, but Marlborough is 351 years old, and Sudbury is 373 years old! Sudbury is a beautiful village of about 20,000 people. There are many colonial homes throughout the wooded, twisting lanes. Marlborough is now home to about 36,000 people, but seems more industrialized than Sudbury.

Later, we drove through the charming village of Concord and saw Thoreau's Walden Pond. This is Sunday, and many people were enjoying the day at the pond, sunning themselves, hiking, boating, or swimming. We also saw Minuteman National Historic Park in Concord, with some of the houses still standing that were there during the Revolutionary War.

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