Ward Family Monument

Major General Artemas Ward, son of Colonel Nahum Ward and a Harvard graduate of 1748, served as a justice in 1762 and in 1776 became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Worcester County. He was a major in the 1758 expedition against Canada, was appointed colonel in 1759, and in 1766 had his commission revoked because of his inflexible opposition to arbitrary power, after which he told the Royal Governor that he had been twice honored. In 1768 he was chosen to the Executive Council and was then negatived by the Royal Governor and deprived of a seat at the board for the same reason. In 1775 he was appointed to command the army at Cambridge and by the Continental Congress became the first major general in the Army of the Revolution. In 1779 he was appointed a member of the Continental Congress and under the federal government was repeatedly elected a member, and he also served 16 years as a representative from his town in the legislature, becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1785. His life was characterized by firmness of mind and integrity of purpose, acting from duty to his country and accountability to his God. The Ward family record here also includes Sarah, wife of General Artemas Ward; Captain Nahum Ward, son of General Ward, who died in the army in 1778; Martha, daughter of General Ward; Deacon William Ward of Marlborough, from England; Captain William Ward; Colonel Nahum Ward and Martha Ward; and later members of the family including Charles G. Ward of the 24th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, killed in battle at Drury's Bluff, Virginia, in 1864, along with numerous descendants of Thomas W. Ward, Harriet P. Ward, Samuel D. Ward, Abigail M. Ward, Andrew H. Ward, Sarah H. Ward, and Elizabeth Ward.

Shrewsbury, Massachusetts · United States