Josephine Mary Hope-Scott Ward

Josephine Mary Ward (née Hope or Hope-Scott; published as Mrs Wilfrid Ward; 18 May 1864 – 20 November 1932) was a British novelist and nonfiction writer whose works were informed by her Roman Catholic faith. She published ten novels and a novella, including One Poor Scruple, Out of Due Time (1906), The Job Secretary (1911) and Tudor Sunset (1932). Her novels were generally well received during her lifetime, but fell into obscurity after her death. Some of her fiction has been reprinted in the 21st century. She also wrote articles and religious tracts, and edited her husband Wilfrid Ward's lectures for publication. She provided the initial finance for the Catholic publishing house Sheed and Ward, founded by her daughter Maisie Ward and her husband.

Biography Josephine Hope was born in Westminster, London, on 18 May 1864 to James Robert Hope-Scott, a lawyer, and Lady Victoria Alexandrina Fitzalan Howard, who was the daughter of the late Henry Fitzalan-Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Both parents had died by 1873, and the children were adopted by their maternal grandmother, Augusta Minna Howard, the dowager Duchess of Norfolk, and brought up first at Arundel Castle and from 1877 at Uckfield in East Sussex. She was privately educated.