John was born in 1803 to James (a sawyer) and Amelia Ward and was baptised privately on 8th May and publicly at Beaulieu church on 15th June that year. Private baptisms were carried out, typically at the new born baby's home, if they were sickly and thought unlikely to survive.

John was the fourth of James and Amelia's eight children and records show the family lived in Bucklers Hard in 1814 so not within the area recorded in Rev Comyn's notebooks.

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Researching  John and Priscilla Ward's life together proved challenging. The records that most likely relate to them follow.

• According to the England marriage register a Priscilla Coombs married a John Ward in the last quarter of 1850 in the Southampton area. John would have been about 47 and Priscilla 51. No parish record could be found relating to this marriage to give a more precise location, date or parents of the couple.

• A Priscilla Coombs, born to Ann and William, was baptised in Mappowder, Dorset on 17th July 1796 which, if this is her, would infer that she was older than stated on her gravestone.

• John (46), a master saddler married to a Sarah Ward (48) are listed in living in Beaulieu village in the 1851 census. This roughly tallies with the information in subsequent censuses for John Ward (age, occupation) but implies Priscilla used the name Sarah and was younger that the gravestone information suggests.

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Priscilla was buried at the chapel by the Rev John Bartlett Burt on 5th January 1859. Probate was granted in July 1860 and that record matches the date of death on the gravestone and also lists husband John as a harness maker.

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The 1861 census lists John as a widower born in Beaulieu in 1803/4 and saddler living with his 30 year old housekeeper Sarah Aish in Beaulieu village. In the 1871 census John is listed harness maker living with his housekeeper Mary A Bennett in Beaulieu village, Sarah Aish having got  married in January 1871. These records are a good fit to the gravestone's information (Priscilla's death, John's dates of birth and death).

John was buried by Rev J B Burt on 26th November 1873.​