Nathaniel Ward (1578 – October 1652) was a
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
clergyman and pamphleteer in England and
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
Biography
A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in
Haverhill, Suffolk
Haverhill ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies about south east of Cambridge, south west of Bury St Edmunds, and north west of Braintree and Colche ...
, England. He studied law and graduated from
Emmanuel College, Cambridge University in 1603. He practised as a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...
and travelled in continental Europe. In
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
he met a German Protestant reformer,
David Pareus
David Pareus (30 December 1548 – 15 June 1622) was a German Reformed Protestant theologian and reformer.
Life
He was born at Frankenstein in Schlesien on 30 December 1548. At some point, he hellenized his original surname, ''Wängler'' (mean ...
, who persuaded him to enter the ministry. In 1618 he was a chaplain to a company of English merchants at
Elbing, in Poland. He returned to England and in 1628 he was appointed rector of
Stondon Massey
Stondon Massey is a village and civil parish in the Brentwood district of Essex, England. The village is to the north of Brentwood, between Blackmore and Doddinghurst.
Stondon Massey hosts an annual fete on the village green. In 2006 the ...
in Essex. He was soon recognised as one of the foremost
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
ministers in Essex, and so in 1631 was reprimanded by the
Bishop of London, William Laud. Although he escaped excommunication, in 1633 he was dismissed for his Puritan beliefs. (Ward's two brothers also suffered for their non-conformity.)
In 1634 Ward emigrated to
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
and became a minister in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
for two years. He then resigned because of ill-health. While still living in Ipswich, he wrote for the colony of Massachusetts ''
The Body of Liberties'', legal code, which was adopted by the
General Court of the
Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first
code of law
A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...
s established in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
. ''The Body of Liberties'' defined liberty in terms that were advanced in their day, establishing a code of fundamental principles based on
Common Law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...
, ''
Magna Carta
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by t ...
'', and the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
. However, Ward believed in
theocracy
Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.
Etymology
The word theocracy originates fr ...
rather than democracy. One of his epigrams was:
The upper world shall Rule,
While Stars will run their race:
The nether world obey,
While People keep their place.
Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Some have said that ''The Body of Liberties'' began the American tradition of liberty, leading eventually to the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
.
Winthrop Society
/ref>
In 1645 Ward began his second book, ''The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America''. This was published in England in January, 1646–1647, before Ward's return there, under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard. Three other editions, with important additions and changes, soon followed. The ''Simple Cobbler'' is a small book, which "in spite of its bitterness, and its lack of toleration" is "full of quaint originality, grim humor and power", according to the anthology ''Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Transplanting of Culture 1607–1650'' (1903).[Trent, William P. and Wells, Benjamin W., ''Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Transplanting of Culture 1607–1650'', New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1903 edition, pp. 250–251.]
According to the anthology, the book is "probably the most interesting literary performance" in the first half of the 17th century in the English colonies that later became the United States. The book was later reprinted in 1713 and 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts.[
He also wrote several religious-political pamphlets.
At the end of the ]English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
, Ward returned to England, where he wrote pamphlets, particularly ''Discolliminium'' (1650), critical of the establishment of the Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execu ...
. His contribution to the Engagement debate (an oath of loyalty to the new Commonwealth) and his attack on polemic opponents, particularly John Dury with whom he had a 'friendly scuffle'(44), included attacking the speed with which the oath was to be administered and questioning the government's legitimacy as a just power. Ward became the minister of the church at Shenfield
Shenfield is a commuter suburb of Brentwood, in the borough of Brentwood, Essex, England. In 2020, the suburb was estimated to have a population of 5,396.
History
The old village (now town), by the church and Green Dragon pub, lies along the ...
in Essex and died shortly after in Shenfield.
References
External links
*
*
''Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' – Emigrant Puritans
*.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Nathaniel
1578 births
1652 deaths
17th-century American writers
17th-century English male writers
17th-century English writers
17th-century English Anglican priests
17th-century New England Puritan ministers
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
American Christian clergy
American religious writers
English Caroline nonconforming clergy
Founders of Hartford, Connecticut
Massachusetts colonial-era clergy
American pamphleteers
American male non-fiction writers
People from Haverhill, Suffolk
People from Ipswich, Massachusetts
People of colonial Massachusetts
People from Shenfield