Samuel Ward (1572–1643) was an English academic and a master at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He served as one of the delegates from the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

to the

Synod of Dort The Synod of Dort (also known as the Synod of Dordt or the Synod of Dordrecht) was a European transnational Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618–1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy caused by the rise of Arminianism. ...

Life

He was born at Bishop Middleham, County Durham. He was a scholar of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, where in 1592 he was admitted B.A. In 1595 he was elected to a fellowship at Emmanuel, and in the following year proceeded M.A. In 1599 he was chosen a Fellow of the new

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

. William Perkins entrusted to him for publication his treatise, ''Problema de Romanae Fidei ementito Catholicismo''; Ward published it with a preface addressed to James I, to whom he was shortly afterwards appointed chaplain. Ward was one of the scholars involved with the translation and preparation of the

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

. He served in the "Second Cambridge Company" charged with translating the ''

Apocrypha Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

''. During this time he made the acquaintance of James Ussher, whom he assisted in patristic researches. In 1610, Sidney elected him to the mastership of the college and he was created D.D., having been admitted B.D. in 1603. He was now recognised as a moderate with

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

views, strongly attached to the Church of England; Thomas Fuller, who was his pupil at Sidney Sussex College, found him consistent. In 1615 Ward was made prebendary of

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Bath and Wells and the mother church of the diocese of Bath and Wells. There are daily Church of England services in ...

, and also

archdeacon of Taunton The Archdeacon of Taunton has been, since the twelfth century, the senior ecclesiastical officer in charge of the archdeaconry of Taunton in the Diocese of Bath and Wells (in the Church of England). The archdeaconry includes List of ecclesiastical ...

. On 21 February 1618 he was appointed prebendary of York, and in the following year was one of the English delegates to the

synod of Dort The Synod of Dort (also known as the Synod of Dordt or the Synod of Dordrecht) was a European transnational Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618–1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy caused by the rise of Arminianism. ...

. Letters addressed to him there from Thomas Wallis, Gerard Herbert, Joseph Hall, and Arthur Lake survive. Simon Episcopius found him the most learned member of the synod. In 1623 he was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity in the university. He was one of the licensors of George Carleton's book against

Richard Montagu Richard Montagu (or Mountague) (1577 – 13 April 1641) was an English cleric and prelate. Early life Montagu was born during Christmastide 1577 at Dorney, Buckinghamshire, where his father Laurence Mountague was vicar, and was educated at E ...

's 'Appeale'; it was later suppressed by

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

; and he appears to have himself taken part in the attack on Montagu, whose chaplain he had at one time been. He concurred in the censure of a sermon preached at Great St. Mary's by one Adams in 1627, advocating the practice of confession (Canterburies Doom, pp. 159–92); and when Isaac Dorislaus was appointed lecturer on history at Cambridge, he welcomed him. He appears also to have written in reply to the anti-Calvinistic treatise ''God's Love to Mankind'' by Henry Mason and Samuel Hoard. His college chapel remained unconsecrated. When the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point b ...

broke out his sense of duty, as involved in his sworn allegiance to the crown, would not allow him to take 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 ...

, and in consequence he became obnoxious to the presbyterian majority. In 1643, along with many others, he was imprisoned in St. John's College until, his health giving way, he was permitted to retire in

, his own college. He was attended during his last days by Seth Ward. On 30 August 1643, while attending the chapel service, he was seized with illness, an attack which terminated fatally on the 7th of the following September. His obsequies were formally celebrated on 30 November, when a funeral oration was pronounced in Great St. Mary's by Henry Molle, the public orator, and a sermon preached by Ward's friend and admirer, Ralph Brownrig. He was interred in the college chapel. Other pupils were Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester and Richard Holdsworth, and he supported both Abraham Wheelocke and Simon Birkbeck. Other friends included

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

, John Davenant, Thomas James, and Sir Simonds D'Ewes.

King James Bible manuscript

In 2015, Professor Jeffrey Alan Miller of Montclair State University announced the discovery of an early draft manuscript of a portion of the

, specifically 1 Esdras and Wisdom 3–4, among Ward's papers in the archives of

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

. Written in Ward's own handwriting and dating from 1604 to 1608, the manuscript shows Ward crafting portions of the

, with translation notes in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The manuscript sheds light on the translation process used for the King James Bible, notably that many portions were at least initially translated independently and not collaboratively as was originally thought. Prior to Miller, the existence of Ward's draft of 1 Esdras had been previously noted in the early nineteenth century by the librarian and scholar

Henry Todd (priest) Henry John Todd (1763–1845) was an English Anglican cleric, librarian, and scholar, known as an editor of John Milton. He was librarian at Lambeth Palace (1803), and examined and described manuscripts, chiefly biblical, which formerly belonged ...

, in his biography of

Brian Walton (bishop) Brian Walton (160029 November 1661) was an England, English Anglican priest, Anglicanism#Anglican divines, divine and scholar. He is mostly remembered for London polyglot, his polyglot Bible. Life Walton was born at Seymour, in the district ...

. Todd writes, in the course of his survey of British Biblical scholarship in the period before Walton: "Dr ''Samuel Ward'', the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, was the constant correspondent of Archbishop Usher upon subjects of biblical and oriental criticism. Among his curious Adversaria in the library of Sidney College, of which he was Master, there remain the proof of his attention in translating the first book of Esdras, which probably was the sole part of the Apocrypha assigned to him; and a collation of ancient Versions upon the beginning of Genesis." Todd, however, never specified the exact notebook in question that contained Ward's draft of 1 Esdras. He also overlooked the existence in the same notebook of the draft of Wisdom 3–4.

Works

*''Gratia discriminans: Concio ad Clerum habita Cantabrigiae, 12 January 1625'', London 1626. *''Magnetis reductorium Theologicum Tropologicum, in quo ejus novus, verus et supremus usus indicatur'', London, 1637; the same translated by Harbottle Grimston, London, 1640. According to

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he join ...

, this was actually written by Samuel Ward of Ipswich. *''De Baptismatis Infantilis vi et efficacia Disceptatio'', London, 1653. *''Opera nonnulla: Declamationes Theologicae, Tractatus de justificatione, Praelectiones de peccato originali. Edita a Setho Wardo''. 2 pts., London, 1658. *''Letter to W. Harvey, M.D.'', relating to a petrified skull, in ''Specimens of the Hand writing of Harvey'', edited by

George Edward Paget Sir George Edward Paget, (22 December 1809 – 16 January 1892) was an English physician and academic. Life The seventh son of Samuel Paget and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Tolver, he was born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. After schooling there, he ...

, Cambridge 1849.
'The Diary Of Samuel Ward: A Translator Of The 1611 King James Bible'
edited by John Wilson Cowart and M. M. Knappen, contains surviving pages of his diary running from 11 May 1595 to 1 July 1632.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Samuel 1572 births 1643 deaths Archdeacons of Taunton Westminster Divines English Calvinist and Reformed Christians Translators of the King James Version Participants in the Synod of Dort Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Masters of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge 17th-century English people 16th-century English translators 17th-century English translators 16th-century Protestants 17th-century Protestants Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Cambridge Anglican biblical scholars English biblical scholars Lady Margaret's Professors of Divinity 17th-century biblical scholars 17th-century Christian biblical scholars People from Bishop Middleham 17th-century Anglican theologians 16th-century Anglican theologians