Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ward, Nathaniel (1578-1652)
WARD, NATHANIEL (1578–1652), puritan divine, the second son of John Ward, minister (probably curate) at Haverhill, Suffolk, and Susan, his wife, was born at Haverhill in 1578 (not 1570; Dean proves this in his Memoir). Samuel Ward (1577–1640) [q. v.] was his elder brother. Nathaniel matriculated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1596, and proceeded B.A. in the spring of 1600 and M.A. in 1603. He was at first intended for the law, and appears to have passed some years in travelling in Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, and Denmark. But in 1618 he took holy orders. From 1620 to 1624 he seems to have been chaplain to the colony of British merchants at Elbing. Returning to England, he was curate of St. James's, Piccadilly, from 8 June 1626 to 14 Feb. 1628; thence he was presented to the rectory of Stondon Massey, Essex, of which Sir Nathaniel Rich [q. v.] was patron.
In 1629 Ward was recommended to the Massachusetts Company as pastor, but at that time he declined their offer. In 1633, after having been several times reprimanded by Laud, he was removed from his living on account of his puritan views, and in 1634 he emigrated to Massachusetts, and settled as minister at Agawam, soon afterwards called Ipswich. In 1636 he resigned the cure because of impaired health. In 1639 he was joined with the Rev. John Cotton of Boston in framing the first code of laws established in New England. These are generally admitted to have been a remarkable compilation, showing much legal knowledge; they were passed by the general court in 1641, under the title ‘Body of Liberties.’ In that year he preached the sermon for the general election, and in December of the same year the general court granted him six hundred acres of land near Pentucket, afterwards called Haverhill. These he eventually made over to the university of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ward's influence with the government was considerable. In 1643 he was one of those who signed the memorial against the action of the governor in the case of the dispute between La Tour and D'Aulnay, the neighbouring French governors. On 5 July 1645 he was appointed a member of the committee for revising the laws of Massachusetts. In 1645 Ward wrote the ‘Simple Cobler of Aggawam’ (the Indian name for Ipswich), and sent it to England, where it was published in 1647, and passed through four editions (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iii. 216, 394). In 1646 he himself returned to England. Partly through this book he became well known, and on 30 June 1647 preached to the House of Commons against the control of parliament by the army, giving considerable offence by his plain speaking. Early in 1648 he received the living of Shenfield in Essex, where he died some time before November 1652.
Ward was married, but his wife's name is not recorded. He left two sons—John, who was for a time rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk, and followed his father to New England; James, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford—and a daughter, Susan, who married Giles Firmin [q. v.]
Ward was famous for his incisive wit, which ‘made him known to more Englands than one’ (Cotton Mather, Magnalia, 1855, i. 522). He was moreover a man of judgment and gravity. Besides the works mentioned, Ward published: 1. ‘A Religious Retreat sounded to a Religious Army by one that desires to be faithful to his Country though unworthy to be named,’ 1647. 2. ‘To the Parliament of England. The humble Petitions, Serious Suggestions. … of some moderate and loyall .... freeholders of the Eastern Association,’ 1650. Possibly also he was the author of ‘Mercurius Antimechanicus, or the Simple Cobler's Boy,’ 1648, condemning the execution of Charles I. He edited the tracts called ‘The Day breaking with the Indians in New England,’ 1647 (Massachusetts Historical Soc. 3rd ser. vol. iv.)
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Soc., especially 3rd ser. i. 238, viii. passim, 4th ser. vii. 23–9 (where some of his letters are reprinted); Savage's Genealogical Dict.; Notes and Queries, 1867, 3rd ser. xi. 237; a Memoir of Nathaniel Ward by John Ward Dean, Albany, 1868; Allibone's Dict. Engl. Lit. and authorities there cited; Davids's Nonconformity in Essex.]