“Robert Ware, an English Nonconformist, the founder of the New England family of Wares, was one of those independent spirits — called Nonconformists — who refused to conform to the usages and rites of the Established Church of England. He received a grant of land in Dedham, Mass., February 6, 1642-3. He married in 1645, in Dedham, Margaret Hunting, daughter of John Hunting, the first Ruling Elder of the Dedham church, and his wife, Esther. She died August 26, 1670; and on May 3, 1676, he married for his second wife Hannah Jones. He died in Dedham, April 19, 1699, aged eighty-four years. He had ten children, all by his first wife.
Robert Ware, born in Dedham, August 1, 1653, settled in Wrentham, where he died September 16, 1724. He was impressed by virtue of a warrant from “ye Major” in Dedham to serve in King Philip’s War. He married June 4, 1677, Sarah, daughter of Michael, Jr., and Mary (Fairbanks) Metcalf. She was born December 7, 1648, in Dedham, and died April 13, 1718, in Wrentham, having borne him eight children. In 1721 he married Elizabeth Holbrook, of Mendon, who died July 28, 1723.
Robert Ware was born at Wrentham, December 6, 1680, and died there January 9, 1731—2. March 1, 1710-11, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Hawes) Wright. She was born in Wrentham, June 28, 1692, and died September 5, 1769. Ten children were born of their union.
Timothy Ware, a lifelong resident of Wrentham, was born December 23, 1715, and died November 29, 1794. January 18, 1742-3, he married Mary, daughter of Paul and Hannah Healy (born November 30, 1720; died June 27, 1767). June 1, 1769, he married Mrs. Rachel Ball Stearns, who died June 11, 1800. By his first marriage four children were born, and of his second union there were none.
Elias Ware, his youngest child, was born May 30, 1754, at Wrentham. He married January 25, 1781, Deborah, daughter of Ephraim Groves, of Franklin, Mass., and they became the parents of eleven children, Preston being their second child.
Preston Ware, born in Wrentham, September 24, 1783, died there June 15, 1864. He married first, in 1805, Nancy Ray, of Cumberland, R.I. She died at Wrentham, September 7, 1813, and left children. Of the children born of his union with his second wife, Electa Richardson, one is now living, Mary Ware, who is unmarried.
Preston Ware, son of Preston and Electa (Richardson) Ware, was born August 12, 1821, at Wrentham, and died January 29, 1890, in Boston. At the age of seventeen years he became clerk in a wholesale boot and shoe house in Baltimore, Md., receiving as salary fifty dollars a year and his board. During this time he was taught the elements of chess playing, at which he afterward became an expert. He was subsequently book-keeper for the firm and later a member of the firm of Robert G. Ware & Brother, of Baltimore, wholesale boot and shoe dealers. About this time he was one of the organizers of the Baltimore Chess Association. At the end of two years he established the wholesale shoe house of Anderson, Ware & Co., and three years later sold out and formed the firm of Ware & Weston, which continued four years. Buying then the interest of Mr. Weston, he admitted to partnership Mark W. Jenkins, and, under the firm name of P. Ware, Jr., & Co., was for several years one of the leading boot and shoe dealers of Baltimore. He was also interested at that time in the line of freighters known as Jenk’s Boston and Baltimore Packet Line, which he had helped organize, and which ran until superseded by steamers. Coming with his family to Boston in 1852, Mr. Ware became a member of the wholesale boot and shoe firm of Joseph F. Dane & Co., and the same year he joined the coterie of chess players which included Dr. William Everett, Dr. J. W. Stone, Mr. Hammond, and others of prominence, who met regularly at the United States Hotel, and who in 1858 founded the Boston Chess Club. In 1853 Mr. Ware bought out the Hayward Rubber Company; and in 1855 he sold his interest in his Baltimore business to his partner, Mr. Jenkins. In 1858 he disposed of his interest in the Joseph P. Dane & Co. firm, and in 1860 sold out his stock in the Hayward Rubber Company and became agent of the Newark Rubber Company. He likewise organized at that time the wholesale boot and shoe establishment of P. Ware, Jr., & Co., and continued in business until 1879, when he sold out. He participated in the second, third, and fifth American Chess Congresses and in the International Congress at Vienna. Across the board he met almost every celebrated player of the time, including Paul Morphy, and was recognized as one of the pillars of American chess.
Preston Ware married June 16, 1846, Lavinia Lilly, daughter of Alonzo Lilly, of Ashfield, Mass. Her father was son of Eliakim Lilly and grandson of Jonathan and Sarah (Foster) Lilly. Sarah Foster was a daughter of Nathan and Hannah (Standish) Foster and grand-daughter of Deacon Josiah Standish. whose father, Josiah Standish, was a son of Captain Myles Standish, who came over in the “Mayflower” in 1620. Alonzo Lilly was born at Ashfield in 1800. In early manhood he removed to Baltimore, Md., where for a number of years he was engaged in mercantile business, and was a bank director. About the year 1868 he returned to Massachusetts, and, settling in Newton, became interested in business in Boston. He died January 30, 1890. in his ninetieth year, and was buried in Newton Cemetery. He married Marianna Entler, of Baltimore, who was of Dutch ancestry. Preston and Lavinia Lilly Ware had four children, three of whom are now living, namely: Francis Alden, the subject of this sketch; Charles Howard; and Bruce Richardson. Mary Lilly, the only daughter, died at the age of eleven. Charles H. Ware married Tina Todhunter, of Baltimore, and has two chtldren — Mary Lilly and Joseph. Bruce R. Ware married Ida Randall, of Mattapoisett, Mass., and has three children — Marion, Lillian, and Bruce.
Francis A. Ware was educated in the public schools of Newton, Mass., and at the age of seventeen years entered the employ of Thing & Norris, shoe dealers, as clerk, a position that he f1lled a number of years. He was subsequently with P. Ware, Jr., & Co., and from 1872 to 1878 was a partner in that concern. In 1879 he and his brother Charles formed the firm of F. A. Ware & Brother; in 1882 they sold out; and from 1883 to 1892 he was associated with the firm of Eaton & Terry, Brockton, which subsequently became Terry, Ware & Alley. The sudden death of Mr. Alley in 1895 caused the dissolution of that firm. Its successor, Ware & Lincoln, then organized, continued till 1900. Mr. Ware is now engaged in the shoe business alone, being located on Essex Street, Boston.
On April 21, 1880, Mr. Ware married Caroline Helen Langmaid, daughter of Samuel P. Langmaid. Mr. Langmaid was born at Chichester, N. H., in 1807, and died at his home on Winter Hill, Somerville, January 26, 1880. Coming from New Hampshire to Boston at an early age, he was for several years engaged in the sash, door, and blind business on Haymarket Square. He was president for a long time of the East Boston Gas Light Company and a director of the Middlesex Railway Company. In 1866 he was elected a member of the Charlestown Board of Aldermen to fill a vacancy, and in 1867 was re-elected for a full term. He was a very successful business man and the owner of much valuable real estate in both Charlestown, Somerville, and Boston. He married Mary Durell, who was born December 4, 1815, and died October 22, 1896. They reared three of their five children; namely, Mrs. William Franklin Hall, Mrs. John F. Nickerson, and Mrs. Ware. Mr. Langmaid was of Revolutionary stock. Mr. and Mrs. Ware have four children — Samuel Langmaid, Ernest Alonzo, Lavinia Lilly, and Preston.”
Source: Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Graves and Steinbarger, Publishers, Boston, 1901, pages 849-51
