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{{Short description|English pioneer Baptist missionary, author, printer and translator (1769–1823)}}
{{Other people|William Ward}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox person
| image = Portrait of William Ward (4673869).jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1769|10|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Derby]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1823|3|7|1769|10|20|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Serampore]], India
| occupation = Missionary, author, printer, translator
}}
'''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,<ref name=WCU>{{Cite web |url=https://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/wmward/Main%20html/chrono.html |title=William Carey University website, ''William Ward, Chronology'' |access-date=31 January 2024 |archive-date=31 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131143353/https://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/wmward/Main%20html/chrono.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was the son of John Ward, a carpenter and builder of that town, and grandson of Thomas Ward, a farmer at [[Stretton, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire|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]]''.<ref>[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/239693939902300306?journalCode=ibmc Sage Publishing website, ''The Legacy of William Ward and Joshua and Hannah Marshmann'', article by A. Christopher Smith, published in the International Bulletin of Mission Research, Volume 23, Issue 3, July 1999]</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=G. Landon |date=2025-01-02 |title=Reevaluating William Ward’s (1769–1823) Early Radicalism: An Archival Assessment of the 1797 Thelwall Riot in Derby and the Parties Responsible |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0047729X.2025.2462028 |journal=Midland History |language=EN |doi=10.1080/0047729X.2025.2462028#abstract |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250308023530/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0047729X.2025.2462028 |archive-date=2025-03-08|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Religion==
Ward early in life became a [[Baptist]], and on 28 August 1796 he was baptised at [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].<ref name=WCU /> Preaching constantly in the neighbouring villages, he became known as a man of promise, and, with the assistance of a member of the Baptist community named Fishwick, he proceeded in August 1797 to [[Ewood Hall]], near Halifax in Yorkshire, the theological academy of [[John Fawcett (theologian)|John Fawcett]] (1740–1817), where he studied for a year and a half.

==Missionary work==
[[File:William Ward baptizing a Hindoo in the Ganges at Serampore.jpg|thumb|200px|"William Ward baptizing a [[Hindu|Hindoo]] in the Ganges at Serampore", print (1821) from a painting by [[John Jackson (painter)|John Jackson]]]]
In the autumn of 1798, the [[Baptist Missionary Society|Baptist mission committee]] visited Ewood, and Ward offered himself as a missionary, influenced perhaps by a remark made to him in 1793 by [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] concerning the need for a printer in the Indian mission field.

Ward sailed from England in the ''Criterion'' in May 1799<ref name=WCU /> with [[Hannah Marshman|Hannah]] and [[Joshua Marshman]]. On arriving at [[Calcutta]] he was prevented from joining Carey by an order from the Government, and was thereby obliged to proceed to the [[Danish India|Danish]] settlement of [[Serampore]], where he was joined by Carey.

In India, Ward's time was chiefly occupied in overseeing the [[Serampore Mission Press|community's printing press]], which was used to disseminate the scriptures, once they had been translated into Bengáli, Mahratta, Tamil, and twenty-three other languages. Numerous philological works were also issued and Ward still found time to both keep a copious diary and to preach the gospel to the natives.

On 10 May 1803, he was married at Serampore to the widow of John Fountain,<ref name=WCU /> another missionary, by whom he left two daughters.

Until 1806, he made frequent tours amongst the towns and villages of the province, but after that year the increasing claims of the press on his time, and the extension of the missionary labours in Serampore and Calcutta, prevented him quitting headquarters. In March 1812, the printing office was destroyed by fire.<ref name=WCU /> It contained the types of all the scriptures that had been printed, to the value of at least ten thousand pounds. The moulds for casting fresh type, however, were recovered from the débris, and with the help of friends in Great Britain the loss was soon repaired.

On 23 May 1818, the [[Samachar Darpan]] was printed at the [[Serampore Mission Press|Serampore press]]; it was the first newspaper it had printed in any oriental language.<ref name=WCU />

[[Image:BTESSC.jpg|thumb|200px|The Arms of [[Serampore College]] founded by Ward, Marshman and Carey]]

==Serampore College==
[[File:William Ward Used Chair - Carey Museum - Serampore College - Hooghly 2017-07-06 0764.JPG|thumb|200px|Chair used by William Ward, at the Serampore College.]]
In 1818, Ward, having been for some time in bad health, revisited England. Here he was entrusted with the task of pleading for funds with which to endow a new [[Serampore College|college at Serampore]] which he had founded along with [[Joshua Marshman]] and [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]], for the purpose of instructing natives in European literature and science.

He undertook a series of journeys throughout England and Scotland, and also visited Holland and North Germany. In October 1820, he embarked for New York, and travelled through the United States, returning to England in April 1821. On 28 May, he sailed for India in the ''Alberta'', carrying funds for Serampore College; as a result, Ward, Marshman and Carey became known as the [[Serampore trio]].<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Serampore-trio Britannica.com website, ''Serampore Trio'']</ref>

==Death==
Ward died of [[cholera]] at Serampore on 7 March 1823,<ref name=WCU /> and was interred in the mission burial-ground.

==Written works==
Besides his sermons, Ward was also the author of:

*'A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos' (1806)<ref>[https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/w-x-y-z/ward-william-1769-1823/ Boston University website, ''Ward, William (1769–1823)'']</ref>
*'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,<ref>[http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/r/d/ward_w.htm Hymn Time website, ''William Ward, 1769–1823'']</ref> 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.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*Stennett's "Memoirs of the Life of William Ward", 1825;
*"Memoir of William Ward", Philadelphia;
*Simpson's Life prefixed to "View of History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos" 1863
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Ward, William (1769-1823)|volume=59}}
*Marshman's [https://books.google.com/books?id=cpM3scCmuEAC "Carey, Marshman, and Ward"] 1864
*[http://dmr.bsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/chapbks&CISOPTR=385&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 Full text of ''Memoir of the Rev. William Ward''], American Sunday School Union, 1828.

== External links ==
* [https://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/wmward/index.html Rev. William Ward biography, Center for Study of the Life and Work of William Carey, D.D. (1761–1834)]

{{Protestant missions to India}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, William}}
[[Category:1769 births]]
[[Category:1823 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Baptists]]
[[Category:Baptist missionaries in India]]
[[Category:British missionaries in India]]
[[Category:English Baptist missionaries]]
[[Category:English sermon writers]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:British missionary educators]]
[[Category:People from Derby]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into Bengali]]
[[Category:Deaths from cholera in India]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]
[[Category:British missionary linguists]]
[[Category:Scholars from West Bengal]]

William Ward (missionary) - Revision history

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