William Ward

William Ward (20 October 1769 – 7 March 1823) was an English Baptist missionary, author, printer and translator.

Early life Ward was born at Derby on 20 October 1769, and was the son of John Ward, a carpenter and builder of that town, and grandson of Thomas Ward, a farmer at Stretton, near Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. His father died while he was a child, and the care of his upbringing fell to his mother. He was placed with a schoolmaster named Congreve, near Derby, and afterwards with another named Breary.

On leaving school he was apprenticed to a Derby printer and bookseller John Drewry (1732-1794), with whom he continued two years after the expiration of his indentures, assisting him to edit the Derby Mercury. In 1793, Ward moved to London to study typesetting before relocating once again to Stafford, where he assisted Joshua Drewry, a nephew of his former master, to edit the Staffordshire Advertiser from its prospectus in late 1794 to the fall of 1795. At the end of 1795, Ward proceeded to Hull, where the Rawson printing firm employed him to focus solely upon improving their infant newspaper, the Hull Advertiser. Ward continued to edit the Hull Advertiser through the summer of 1797 before leaving for his own ministerial studies.

Ward was involved with local and national sociopolitical campaigns for the abolition of the slave trade, pacificism, and parliamentary reform. Contrary to most secondary sources on his life, Ward was not involved in the Thelwall riot in Derby on March 6, 1797.

Religion Ward early in life became a Baptist, and on 28 August 1796 he was baptised at Hull.

Death Ward died of cholera at Serampore on 7 March 1823, 'Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindoos,' Serampúr, 1811, 4 vols. 4to; 5th edit., abridged, Madras, 1863, 8vo. 'Farewell Letters in Britain and America on returning to Bengal in 1821,' London, 1821, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1821. 'Brief Memoir of Krishna-Pal, the first Hindoo, in Bengal, who broke the Chain of the Cast by embracing the Gospel;' 2nd edit., London, 1823, 12mo.

He was also the author of several hymns, sonnets and short poems which were printed as an appendix to a memoir of him by Samuel Stennett. A portrait, engraved by R. Baker from a painting by Overton, is prefixed to the same work.