William Yard Sr. (abt. 1674 - 1744)

Born about 1674 in Churston Ferrers, Devon, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Tindall) Yard — married about 5 Nov 1702 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Colony

Descendants

Died 6 Dec 1744 at about age 70 in Trenton, old Hunterdon now Mercer County, New Jersey

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Brett Buckley [send private message]

Biography

William was born in 1674 in Devonshire, England. He was the son of Joseph Yard and Mary Salisbury. He immigrated to America with his wife, Mary Tindall, their children and his brother, Joseph, between 1687 and 1700. They first settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Joseph purchased a town lot on Third street. (See Book E., No. I, Philadelphia deeds, p. 561.)

Joseph and William claimed descent from the Yards that accompanied William the Conqueror into England and established themselves AtYard near Marlborough. [The American: A National Journal, Vol. 13-14, p 234.] William and his family came to what is now Trenton, New Jersey, in 1710. April 1, 1712, he purchased a lot from Mahlon Stacy which fronted Second, now State Street, extending to the Assunpink Creek. He built his house on Front Street and kept a public house called Ligonier or Black Horse. The first Hunterdon County Court of Common Pleas in Quarter Sessions was held at Yard's house in Trenton until 1719.

In March 1720 the court required the justices and freeholders to meet the public house keepers at the house of William Lawrence on Front Street where the court had been held for some years. (Raum's History of Trenton, p.68, and Minutes of Hunterdon County, vol.1, p61, clerk's office, Flemington, New Jersey.) William Yard also served as clerk of the court.

He died December 6,1744. His will was dated February 14, 1742 and proved July 4,1745 in Trenton, Burlington county, New Jersey Colony. He was buried in the First Prebyterian Church yard on East State Street in Trenton, December 8, 1744. His wife Mary and his five sons and daughter survived him. Mary died in 1747.

William along with his brothers helped their father build "Old Swedes Church" in Philadelphia starting in 1698.

From book cited below: "By his wife Mary Peace, he had, Joseph, William, John, Benjamin, Jethro."

AFN

1ZK7-XHN

Sources

• Frederick Loring Dixon Yard Professor, Joseph Yard of Philadelphia and William, his son, of Trenton and some of their decendents (Mount Dora, Florida: F. L Dixon, 1999), 18; FHL Microfilm 1,440,534, item Item 1
• Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, digital images (www.findagrave.com  : accessed 5 Jul 2014), William Yard; Created by: Joseph R. Klett Record added: Aug 29, 2013 Find A Grave Memorial# 116263040
• Original record created from - http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/y/a/r/Rix-N-Yard/ODT4-0002.html
• https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924008415691&view=1up&seq=325

Following sources used by James Yard Lawrence:

• Lee, Francis Brazely, Ed. Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County New Jersey. New York: The Lewes Publishing Company, 1907.
• New Jersey Index of Wills, Inventories etc.
• National Geographic Society Quarterly, Vol. 21; p19. Vols. 27-30.
• McCracken, George. The Yard Family of Philadelphia and Trenton. 1956.
• Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey by John W. Barber and Henry Howe.
• Trenton Property and Land Use Document
• Joseph Yard of Philadelphia and William, His Son, and Some of their Descendants
• Geneology of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing by Cooley. [not always accurate]

From Joseph R. Klett, authority on early New Jersey history and genealogy:

“In Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing ... by Eli F. Cooley (1883), William is incorrectly identified as the brother (not son) of Joseph Yard of Philadelphia. Other genealogists have repeated Cooley's error and this is now a widespread mistake in numerous family trees and online sources.

Dr. George E. McCracken, F.A.S.G., is credited with "setting the record straight" in his accounts of the Yard family. These include his unpublished genealogy, "The Yard Family of Philadelphia and Trenton" (1956), held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and his article on the early generations of the family published in The American Genealogist 33:66- (1957). McCracken cites several deeds in Philadelphia between William and his brothers identifying them as the sons of Joseph Yard Sr. (William Yard did have a brother named Joseph as well.)

McCracken also discusses several fabricated pedigrees for William Yard and his father.”