William Ward (24 July 1787 – 30 June 1849) was an English financier, and noted

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er.

Life

Born at Highbury Place, Islington, 24 July 1787, he was the second son of George Ward (died 1829), of Northwood Park, Cowes, a London merchant and large landowner in the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, by his wife Mary (died 1813), daughter of

Henry Sampson Woodfall Henry Sampson Woodfall (21 June 173912 December 1805) was an English printer and journalist. He was born and lived in London. Biography Woodfall's grandfather Henry Woodfall (c. 1686–1747), was the author of the ballad ''Darby and Joan'' ...

Robert Plumer Ward Robert Ward, or from 1828 Robert Plumer Ward (19 March 1765 – 13 August 1846), was an English barrister, politician, and novelist. George Canning said that his law books were as pleasant as novels, and his novels as dull as law books. Life H ...

was his uncle. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

. Ward was destined for commerce, and spent some time at Antwerp in a banking-house. On his return his father took him into partnership in 1810. In 1817 he was elected a director of the Bank of England, known as an expert on foreign exchanges. In 1819 he gave evidence before the parliamentary committees on the restrictions on payments in cash by the Bank of England. On 9 June 1826 he became Member of Parliament in the Tory interest for the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, and in 1830 at the request of the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...

, he acted as chairman of the committee appointed to investigate the affairs of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, before the opening of the China trade. In 1831, discontented at the spirit of reform, he declined to stand for parliament. In 1835 he presented himself as a candidate, and was defeated by the Whigs; and retired from public life. Ward died on 30 June 1849 in London at Wyndham Place.

Cricketing career

William Ward was a prominent right-handed batsman and an occasional slow lob bowler. His first-class career began in the 1810 English cricket season but it was interrupted by the

Napoleonic War The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

until 1816. Ward played until 1845. His score of 278 for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) v Norfolk at Lord's in 1820 was the highest individual innings in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

until

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

scored first-class cricket's first triple-century in August 1876, more than 27 years after Ward's death. The ball used is thought to be the oldest in existence and is kept in the MCC Museum. In 1825

Thomas Lord Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances ...

was negotiating the sale of his cricket ground as a building estate when Ward stepped in and saved Lord's for cricket. The price was £5000. He was celebrated in the following anonymous poem.

:And of all who frequent the ground named after Lord, :On the list first and foremost should stand Mr Ward. :No man will deny, I am sure, when I say :That he's without rival first bat of the day, :And although he has grown a little too stout, :Even Matthews is bothered at bowling him out. :He's our life blood and soul in this noblest of games, :And yet on our praises he's many more claims; :No pride, although rich, condescending and free, :And a well informed man and a city M.P.

John Nyren John Nyren (15 December 1764 – 30 June 1837) was an English cricketer and author. Nyren made 16 known appearances in first-class cricket from 1787 to 1817. He achieved lasting fame as the author of '' The Cricketers of My Time'', which was fir ...

dedicated his famous book '' The Young Cricketer's Tutor'' to Ward when it appeared in 1833. He described Ward as "the most worthy man of the day to reflect credit upon my choice as a patron".''Barclay's World of Cricket – 2nd Edition'', 1980, Collins Publishers, , p. 9. More recently, Ward was mentioned in The Duckworth Lewis Method's song, "Gentlemen and Players".

:A bored young William Ward MP. :Bought Lord's from Thomas Lord :In eighteen twenty five.

The lyric is slightly inaccurate since Ward did not become an MP until 1826.

Works

In 1847 Ward published ''Remarks on the Monetary Legislation of Great Britain'' (London), in which he condemned the act of 1816 establishing an exclusive

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...

, and called for a bi-metallic currency.

Family

On 26 April 1811 he married Emily, fifth daughter of Harvey Christian Combe, a London alderman. She died on 24 September 1848, leaving four sons –

William George Ward William George Ward (21 March 1812 – 6 July 1882) was an English theologian and mathematician. A Roman Catholic convert, his career illustrates the development of religious opinion at a time of crisis in the history of English religious though ...

, Henry Ward, Matthew Ward, and Arthur Ward – and two daughters.

References

Attribution: *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, William English cricketers English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Gentlemen cricketers Hampshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers 1787 births 1849 deaths North v South cricketers People educated at Winchester College People associated with the Bank of England Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 Surrey cricketers Tory MPs (pre-1834) Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers Married v Single cricketers Epsom cricketers Godalming Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers A to K v L to Z cricketers Old Wykehamists cricketers Non-international England cricketers St John's Wood cricketers Fast v Slow cricketers William Ward's XI cricketers George Osbaldeston's XI cricketers 19th-century British businesspeople Marylebone Cricket Club Second 10 with 1 Other cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club Second 9 with 3 Others cricketers Lord Strathavon's XI cricketers