Surname Saturday ~ WOODWARD of Boston and Ipswich, Massachusetts

The Woodward compiled genealogy book (see below)

WOODWARD

Ezekiel Woodward is NOT a son of Nathaniel Woodward of Boston, which is often seen in online genealogies and some old genealogy books.  He  died in Wenham, Massachusetts in 1699.  According to the book Some Descendants of Nathaniel Woodward, 1984, page 4 “It is not on record that Ezekiel Woodward was a son of Nathaniel Woodward but he used the names of his stepmother and of his half-sister and of two sisters-in-law for four of his daughters, and his brother Nathaniel had a son and a grandson named Ezekiel.  He was also a carpenter, as was Nathaniel1, and bought land in Boston in 1651.”

Before I go on, remember that the daughters of Ezekiel were Anne, Sarah, Margaret, Elizabeth, Prudence, Martha, Mary and Rachel.  These were all common Puritan names.  It also supposes that Nathaniel2 was his brother.  It may point to a kinship, but there is still no proof that Ezekiel is Nathaniel1 Woodward’s son.  An 1894 article in the NEHGS Register, “Descendants of Nathaniel Woodward,” Volume 51, page 172 does not name Ezekiel as a son, and neither does the Great Migration Begins.

In the Gates Dawes genealogy (see below), page 671 there is an interesting story about Ezekiel Woodward:

“Ezekiel was married thirdly to SARAH (KNOWLTON?) PIPER, widow of Nathaniel of Wenham,… and thereby hangs a tale, for she had been receiving attentions from one John Poland and may even have been engaged to marry him.  After her marriage to Ezekiel, certain men taunted Poland with having “lost his widow”, asked how “Woodward got along with his new wife”, etc. In order to “save his face” Poland began to peddle lies and on 20 June 1679, Ezekiel brought suit against Poland for defamation, for slandering him and his wife.  The case came to trial in Sep 169, and witnesses testified that Poland had said the widow had a poor bargain with Ezekiel and she repented of it: that Ezekiel did not deserve her, and her friends wondered that she left Poland. Then Poland became intrigued with is subject and claimed that the widow’s brother Knowlton “sayd to me yt shee came to him slaubering & crying & sayd yt she was undone by marrying Woodward: & that shee was very much Troubled that she had wronged me; yt is Poland & That she was not able to see me but watterd her plants at the meeting at the very sight of me & did grately bemone herself that shee should offer so much wrong to Polend & that I derst not goe to the meeting at Wenham for every Time she see mee she is nott able to bare it but is ready for to swound away”

“A verdict was rendered in favor of Ezekiel and Poland was ordered to make acknowledgement of his fault so at this same court he “made open confession in court that he had done wrong to widow Piper, now the wife of Ezekiel Woodward, in speaking the words to which the witnesses testified, and was sorry for it, desiring the court to forgive him” – which seems an easy way out for him!”

I like this story because John Poland is my 9^th great grandfather, through his first wife, Bethiah Friend.  John Poland married a woman named Margery sometime in 1680.  Sarah Piper married Ezekiel as his third wife sometime after 3 December 1678 when his second wife, Elizabeth, widow of John Solart, died.  Ezekiel Woodward is also my 9^th great grandfather.  I descend from two of his daughters by his first wife, Anne Beamsley: Margaret and Prudence. 

Some WOODWARD resources:

Some Descendants of Nathaniel  Woodward who came from England to Boston about 1630, by Harold Edward Woodward, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1984. (Ignore pages 3 – 4 which name Ezekiel as Nathaniel’s son, this book is mostly unsourced.)

There is another compiled genealogy about the Woodward family, the Ezekiel (1) Woodward sketch on pages 666 – 676 in the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes by Mary Walton Ferris, Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons (privately printed), volume 1, 1931.

Great Migration Begins, by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume III, pages 2061 - 2064. 

There is no article about Ezekiel Woodward listed in Martin Hollick’s New Englanders in the 1600s which lists new research articles and books as possible source information.

If you are lucky enough to see the British BBC version of Who do You Think You Are?  with celebrity Richard Madely, it shows how his ancestor Ezekiel Woodward was a sergeant during King Philip’s War and was in the Great Swamp Fight of 1675.  I haven’t seen this episode yet.  Does anyone know if it is online somewhere?

My WOODWARD genealogy:

Generation 1:  Ezekiel Woodward,  died 29 January 1699 in Wenham, Massachusetts; married first to Anne Beamsley in January 1650 in Boston; married second to Elizabeth Unknown on 20 December 1672 in Wenham, the widow of John Solart; married third to Sarah Edwards, widow of Nathaniel Piper.

Lineage A:

Generation 2: Margaret Woodward, born 24 February 1655 in Boston, died 22 May 1716 in Scarborough, Maine; married on 20 October 1672 in Ipswich, Massachusetts to William Andrews, son of John Andrews and Jane Jordan.  He was born in 1649 and died on 7 February 1716/7 in the Chebacco Parish of Ipswich.

Generation 3: John Andrews m. Elizabeth Story

Generation 4: Abigail Andrews m. Jeremiah Burnham

Generation 5: Abigail Burnham m. Isaac Allen

Generation 6: Joseph Allen m. Judith Burnham

Generation 7: Joseph Allen m. Orpha Andrews

Generation 8: Joseph Gilman Allen m. Sarah Burnham Mears

Generation 9: Joseph Elmer Allen m. Carrie Maude Batchelder

Generation 10: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

Lineage B:

Generation 2:  Prudence Woodward, born 4 April 1660 in Boston, died 9 June 1732; married on 2 November 1677 in Ipswich to Benjamin Marshall, son of Edmund Marshall and Millicent Unknown.  He was born 27 September 1646 in Salem, Massachusetts; died 25 November 1716 in Ipswich.

Generation 3: Benjamin Marshall m. Bethiah Goodhue

Generation 4: Elizabeth Marshall m. David Burnham

Generation 5: Amos Burnham m.  Sarah Giddings

Generation 6: Judith Burnham m. Joseph Allen (see above)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ WOODWARD of Boston and Ipswich, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 21, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/surname-saturday-woodward-of-boston-and.html: accessed [access date]).