Samuel Ward Jr. (November 17, 1756 – August 6, 1832) was an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

soldier, politician, and delegate to the secessionist

Hartford Convention The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which New England leaders of the Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War ...

Early life

Ward was born in

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a New England town, town on the Coast, southwestern coastline of Washington County, Rhode Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, first settled by English colonists in 1661, and incorporated as a List of municipalitie ...

on November 17, 1756. He was the fifth child of Anne Ray and Samuel Ward, a founding trustee of Brown University,

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...

delegate and colonial

governor of Rhode Island The governor of Rhode Island is the head of government of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's Army National Guard and Air National Guard. The current governor is Dan McKee, a member of the Democrati ...

. Samuel graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

with high honors, in 1771.

Career

American Revolution

Ward was commissioned a captain in the Kings and Kent County militia in 1775 and served in that rank in the regiment under the command of Colonel Varnum when it was mobilized in April 1775. On May 3, 1775, Varnum's Regiment became part of the Army of Observation during the

Siege of Boston The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. In the siege, Patriot (American Revolution), American patriot militia led by newly-installed Continental Army commander George Wash ...

. Ward volunteered with 250 Rhode Islanders under Christopher Greene to support

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...

on his expedition to Quebec. Ward was captured, along with most members of the expedition, on the night of December 31, 1775 and was exchanged sometime in 1776. Ward was promoted to a major of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment on January 12, 1777, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 5 May 1779 (with date of rank retroactive to May 26, 1778). With the 1st Rhode Island Regiment he fought at the

Battle of Red Bank The Battle of Red Bank, also known as the Battle of Fort Mercer, was fought on October 22, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War. A British and Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River just s ...

(October 1777) and the

Battle of Rhode Island The Battle of Rhode Island (also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill) took place on August 29, 1778. Continental Army and Militia forces under the command of Major General John Sullivan had been besieging the British forces in Newport, Rhode Is ...

(August 1778).

Post war life

Ward retired from the Continental Army on January 1, 1781, when the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were consolidated. In 1783 he became an original member of the

Society of Cincinnati The Society of the Cincinnati is a fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of military officers who ...

. After the war, Ward became a merchant and traveled extensively to trade to Asia and Europe. Ward was elected to the

Annapolis Convention (1786) The Annapolis Convention, formally titled as a Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, was a national political convention held September 11–14, 1786 in the old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House in A ...

. In 1814, Ward was served as a delegate to the

. He was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1815.

Personal life

In 1778 Ward married Phebe Greene (1760–1828), daughter of Governor William Greene Jr. Together, they were the parents of: * Samuel Ward III (1786–1839), who married

Julia Rush Cutler Ward Julia Rush Cutler Ward (January 5, 1796November 9, 1824) was an American occasional poet. One of her poems is preserved in Rufus Wilmot Griswold's ''Female Poets of America'' (1878). Early life Julia Rush Cutler was born in Boston, January 5, ...

(1796–1824). * Richard Ray Ward (1795–1873) Ward died on August 6, 1832, in New York City.Ward, John. ''A Memoir of Lieut.-Col. Samuel Ward, First Rhode Island Regiment, Army of the American Revolution; with a Genealogy of the Ward Family.'' New York: Privately printed, 1875. Reprinted from New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 6 (July 1875), pp. 113-12

/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Samuel 1756 births 1832 deaths Rhode Island politicians Brown University alumni Continental Army officers from Rhode Island Patriots in the American Revolution People of Rhode Island in the American Revolution People from Westerly, Rhode Island Politicians from Washington County, Rhode Island People from colonial Rhode Island