Shipping magnate, ironmonger

He was born in Newport, R. I., May 27, 1725; son of Richard and Mary (Tillinghast) Ward; grandson of Thomas Ward and of John Tillinghast and great-grandson of John Ward who emigrated from Gloucester, England, in 1661 and settled at Newport, R. L, where he died in April, 1698. Samuel was graduated from Cambridge college, England, in 1743; was married in 1745, to Anna, daughter of Simon and Deborah (Greene) Ray of Block Island, and settled in Westerly, R.I. He was a representative in the state legislature for several years; chief-justice of the colony, 1761-62, and was elected governor in 1762, serving successive re-elections in 1765 and 1766. He was one of the founders of Rhode Island college, and a trustee, 1764-76; refused to enforce the Stamp Act, and took a decided stand against the agressions of England; was chosen as colleague with Stephen Hopkins as a delegate from Rhode Island to the Continental congress, 1774-76, and was chairman of the committee that reported in favor of appointing Col. George Washington as general of the American army. He died of smallpox at Philadelphia, Pa., and was buried in the churchyard of the first Baptist church in Philadelphia, where a monument was erected to his memory by the Rhode Island legislature, and in 1860 his remains were removed to Newport, R.I. The date of his death is March 25, 1776. BDNA

Son of ¤Samuel Ward [1725-1776], he served in the Revolutionary forces. He helped to found the New York mercantile firm of Samuel Ward & Brother, and was elected (1786) a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, and after moving (1804) to Rhode Island, represented that state at the Hartford Convention (1814).

He was b. at Newport, R. I., May 1, 1786; in 1790 removed to N. Y.; at 14 he became a clerk in the banking house of which he was afterwards the head; 1808 he was taken into partnership with Nathaniel Prime, and the firm of Prime, Ward & King became widely known as enterprising bankers; in 1828 he lent an active hand in behalf of the N. Y. Hist. Soc., and in 1830 to the founding of the N. Y. University, and at a later day entered warmly into various temperance, mission, tract and other beneficent movements; in the commercial crisis of 1836-7, he was particularly active in supporting the commercial credit of the city, in 1838 he aided in founding the Bank of Commerce, of which he was afterward president; d. Nov. 27, 1839. [Griswold's Biog. Annual 1841, 266; Hunt's Lives of Am. Merchants, i, 295.]

He was born in New York city, Jan. 27, 1814; son of ¤Samuel Ward [1786-1839] and Julia Cutler; grandson of ¤Col. Samuel Ward [1756-1832] and Phoebe Greene, and of Benjamin Clarke and Sarah (Mitchell) Cutler; great-grandson of ¤Gov. Samuel Ward [1725-75] and Anne Ray and of ?Gov. William Greene and Catharine Ray, and a descendant (maternally) from John Demermaker, who came from Holland to Massachusetts and changed his name to Cutler. His father was a founder of the University of the City of New York, and treasurer of its council, 1831-39, and president of the City Temperance society.

He attended Round Hill school, Northampton, Mass., and was graduated from Columbia college, New York, A.B., 1831, A.M., 1834. He traveled and studied abroad, becoming proficient in the German, Spanish and French languages, and in 1835 became a partner in his father's banking house in New York city. In 1848 he went to California, where he mastered the dialects of the Indian tribes, and in 1854 visited Mexico.

He was secretary of a government expedition to Paraguay in 1858; was sent on a diplomatic mission to Nicaragua in 1862, and on his return in 1863, settled in Washington, D.C., dividing his time between that place and England.

He was the original of Francis Marion Crawford's (q.v.) Mr. Bellingham in "Dr. Claudius." The honorary degree of Ph.D. was conferred on him by Tübingen.

He was twice married: first, in 1835, to a daughter of William B. and Margaret R. (Livingston) Astor of New York city; and secondly, in 1843, to Medora, daughter of John R. and Suzette Grymes of New Orleans, La.

He is the author of: "Lyrical Recreations" (1865).

He died in Pegli, Italy, May. 19, 1884. BDNA