Progress Demands Removal of Tomb
For over a hundred years the bodies of Edward Ward and his sons, John and Bernard Landell, have lain in Rushden Baptist graveyard, the great tomb erected to their memory being maintained by money from a £400 legacy.

Now the trustees of the Baptist Church want to sell the land, and are trying to contact descendants of the Ward family to get permission to take down the stone-and-railing tomb.

Permission is necessary before the trustees can approach the Home Office for consent to remove the tomb and have the bodies reinterred in Rushden cemetery.

The Wards were members of a wealthy family living at Knuston, and were closely connected with the Wollaston Independent Meeting, as well as being active supporters of Rushden Baptist Church during the ministries of John Peacock and Jonathan Whittemore.

Edward Ward died on November 30, 1841, aged 89. His son, Bernard Landell Ward, died when he was 60 on May 1, 1847, and his other son, John Ward, whose executors created a trust fund for the upkeep of the tomb, died on March 15, 1855, at the age of 67.

The tomb is 15ft long and 10ft wide, with railings 7ft high. The interest from the consolidated stocks in which the legacy was invested is drawn to paint the tomb every three years.

One of the trustees, Mr. Walter Makeham, of 16 Harborough Road, Rushden, has been advertising for descendants to contact him so that they can get permission to go ahead with their clearance of graves in the old graveyard.

A quick reply came from Mr. R. W. Crick, of Cranleigh, Surrey, who said that his mother was of the Ward line.

If she and any other descendants who contact Mr. Makeham are agreeable, plans for dismantling the tomb and removal of the bodies will be made in a few weeks, but it will be some time before they can be carried out.

In a second letter to Mr. Makeham, Mr. Crick says his 89-year-old mother is the daughter of Edward Ward Skevington, who at one time lived in Hayway, Rushden.

Relationship to the Ward family is also claimed by Mrs. Margaret Biggin, of Desborough while a third reply was received from Mr. H. Ward, of Worthing, who is a little doubtful about connections with the Wards buried at Rushden.