Direct Descendent of Andrew Warde Shares Her Love for History as a Local Volunteer

Lisa Lynn Wilson Grant enjoys sharing her affinity for history as a local volunteer with several organizations. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considering she is a direct descendent of Andrew Warde.

The man after whom our high school was named was the ninth great grandfather of Grant, a 1981 graduate of Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk. Although she's never been inside Warde High School, she remembers playing against the Crimson Eagles while she was a member of the Senators' field hockey and tennis teams.

Today, Lisa Grant is a member of the Rowayton Historical Society, chairs the Roton Point History Committee, and serves as volunteer coordinator for Shakespeare-on-the-Sound in Rowayton and Greenwich. Oh, and don't forget her tireless research on the life of Andrew Warde and his descendents. She's looking forward to a Roton Point history event in four weeks.

"We will have our History Day June 28th with a great film which truly brings the history to life, together with postcards and ephemera all about when Roton Point was an amusement park," she told me via email. "I am also working on an amusement park postcard history book with Arcadia Press on that topic."

Grant is also involved with another event to promote the history of Rowayton later this year. "Our Rowayton Historical Society is having a 'Rowayton History Day' on September 12th," she said. "I'm putting together a car show for it, and there will be cemetery tours. We will have our newly renovated museum open for that, plus our 50th anniversary book, Historic Rowayton, will be making its appearance."

Grant said she has documented her lineage to Andrew Warde, and she will share it with the Fairfield History Museum. "They have not met a descendent of Andrew Warde before, so I want to pull together all of this information," she pointed out. She will present the information to the Fairfield Historical Society.

Andrew Warde was born in Homersfield in Suffolk County, England in 1597. He was one of the founders of Wethersfield and Stamford, Connecticut. The inscription on his tombstone states that he was "an honored citizen of Fairfield, Conn. where he died in 1659." It further reads, "Member of a comission graunted to sev'al p'sons to governe the people att] Conecticott by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay under John Winthrop Jr. Governor 1635~1636."

Andrew Warde married Hester (or Esther) Sherman February 1, 1618 (or 1619) in Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut. She was born April 1, 1606 in Dedam, Essex, England, and died February 28, 1665 (or 1666) in Fairfield. Their 10 children were Abigail, Edmund, William, Anne, Mary (who married John Burr), John, Sarah (who married Nathaniel Burr), Andrew, Samuel, and Esther.

Lisa is also a direct descendent of Andrew Warde, Jr., the eighth of the ten children born to Andrew and Hester. Andrew, Jr. was born in 1645. Take a look at the lineage below:

I think Mr. James Coyne, the headmaster of Warde, would be interested in knowing that a direct descendent of the man after whom his school is named is living in the area. By chance, I happened to read her message in the Guest Book, and I contacted Lisa immediately.

She will be a guest on News 12 Connecticut's Education Notebook in the near future. I hope to meet her by then.

Paul

Please sign the AWHS Guest Book.

Visit the Andrew Warde High School Gift Shop.

Watch the AWHS 1976 vintage "film".