The Hawards in eighteenth-century records
The Haward family traces its oyster trade around Mersea to the 1700s. The family has published a record of William Haward senior sending oysters from Mersea to Kent via London in 1769. That document places the trade within the older practice of moving oysters for relaying and resale, long before modern refrigerated transport.
Another surviving source is the will of William Haward, described as an oyster dredger of West Mersea. He signed it on 10 May 1794 and died in 1796. The two records are related to the family trade, but they should not be taken as proof that every recorded William Haward was the same individual without fuller genealogical evidence.
The 1794 will
The will left £100 to his wife Ruth and instructed that the remainder of the estate be realised and divided among their children William, Isaac and Hannah. William and Isaac were named as executors. Haward was buried on 30 May 1796; probate was granted on 17 June that year. These details make the will unusually useful evidence of both an occupation and a named household.
A continuing family trade
Later family histories trace the oyster business through successive generations. Richard Haward, the seventh generation, died in 2023. The eighth generation includes his sons Tom and Bram. The chronology demonstrates a long family association with the Blackwater oyster grounds without requiring the history article to act as a present-day sales or contact page.
Family history and probate
Haward family's account of the 1769 shipment · William Haward's will · William Haward's probate history.