Seth Ward (1617 – 6 January 1689) was an English mathematician, astronomer, and bishop.

Early life

He was born in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, and educated at

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1636 and M.A. in 1640, becoming a Fellow in that year.Galileo project page
/ref> In 1643 he was chosen university mathematical lecturer, but he was deprived of his fellowship next year for opposing the

Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...

(with

Isaac Barrow Isaac Barrow (October 1630 – 4 May 1677) was an English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for proof of the fundamental theorem ...

, John Barwick and Peter Gunning).

Academic

In the 1640s, he took instruction in mathematics from William Oughtred, and stayed with relations of Samuel Ward. In 1649, he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford University, and gained a high reputation by his theory of planetary motion, propounded in the works entitled ''In Ismaelis Bullialdi astronomiae philolaicae fundamenta inquisitio brevis'' (Oxford, 1653), against the cosmology of Ismael Boulliau, and ''Astronomia geometrica'' (London, 1656) on the system of Kepler. About this time he was engaged in a decades-long philosophical controversy with Thomas Hobbes: Seth Ward and John Wallis, both Savilian professors and members of the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

clergy, felt offended by the works of Hobbes, particularly after '' Leviathan'' was released. A small part of the debate with John Webster launched by the ''Vindiciae academiarum'' he wrote with John Wilkins which also incorporated an attack on William Dell. Allen G. Debus, ''Science and Education in the Seventeenth Century: The Webster-Ward Debate'' (1970). He was one of the original members of the Royal Society of London. In 1659, he was appointed President of Trinity College, Oxford, but not having the statutory qualifications he resigned in 1660.

Churchman

King Charles II appointed him to the livings of St Lawrence Jewry in London, and Uplowman in Devonshire, in 1661. He also became dean of

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 140 ...

(1661) and rector of St Breock, Cornwall in 1662. In the latter year he was consecrated

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

, and in 1667 he was translated to the see of Salisbury. The office of

Chancellor of the Order of the Garter The Chancellor of the Order of the Garter is an officer of the Order of the Garter. History of the office When the Order of the Garter was founded in 1348 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by Edward III of England three officers were initiall ...

was conferred on him in 1671. In his diocese he showed great severity to

nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

s, and rigidly enforced the act prohibiting conventicles (unofficial religious meetings). He spent a great deal of money on the restoration of the cathedrals of Worcester and Salisbury. He died at Knightsbridge on 6 January 1689. In 2017 Bishop Wordsworth's Grammar School named its new, fifth house (Ward House) after Bishop Ward.

References

Attribution

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Seth 1617 births 1689 deaths People from Hertfordshire Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge 17th-century English astronomers Deans of Exeter Bishops of Exeter Bishops of Salisbury Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Original Fellows of the Royal Society 17th-century English mathematicians 17th-century Church of England bishops Savilian Professors of Astronomy Chancellors of the Order of the Garter