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 (1740–1817) [q. v.], where he studied for a year and a half. In the autumn of 1798 the 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 (1761–1834) [q. v.] concerning the need of a printer in the Indian mission field. He sailed from England in the Criterion in May 1799, in company with Joshua Marshman [q. v.] On arriving at Calcutta he was prevented from joining Carey by an order from government, and was obliged to proceed to the Danish settlement of Serampúr, where he was joined by Carey.
In India Ward's time was chiefly occupied in superintending the printing press, by means of which the scriptures, translated into Bengáli, Mahratta, Tamil, and twenty-three other languages, were disseminated throughout India. Numerous philological works were also issued. Ward found time, however, to keep a copious diary and to preach the gospel to the natives. Until 1806 he made frequent tours among 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 Serampúr and Calcutta, prevented him quitting headquarters. In 1812 the printing office was destroyed by fire. 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 by the liberality of friends in Great Britain the loss was soon repaired.
In 1818 Ward, having been for some time in bad health, revisited England. He was entrusted with the task of pleading for funds with which to endow a college at Serampúr for the purpose of instructing natives in European literature and science. He undertook a series of journeys through 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, bearing 3,000l. for the new college, which had been founded during his absence, and which is still successfully carried on. He died of cholera at Serampúr on 7 March 1823, and was interred in the mission burial-ground. On 10 May 1802 he was married at Serampúr to the widow of John Fountain, a missionary, by whom he left two daughters.
Besides sermons, Ward was the author of: 1. ‘Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindoos,’ Serampúr, 1811, 4 vols. 4to; 5th edit., abridged, Madras, 1863, 8vo. 2. ‘Farewell Letters in Britain and America on returning to Bengal in 1821,’ London, 1821, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1821. 3. ‘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 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.
[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; Marshman's Carey, Marshman, and Ward, 1864.]
WARD, WILLIAM (1766–1826), engraver, elder brother of James Ward (1769–1859) [q. v.], was born in London in 1766. He became a pupil of John Raphael Smith [q. v.], for whom he afterwards worked as an assistant. Ward became a very distinguished engraver, working occasionally in stipple, but chiefly in mezzotint, and his best plates are remarkable for their artistic and effective treatment. These include portraits of David Wilkie and Patrick Brydone, both after A. Geddes; daughters of Sir Thomas Frankland, after Hoppner; and Horne Tooke, after J. R. Smith; ‘Sleeping Nymph,’ after Hoppner; ‘The Snake in the Grass,’ after Reynolds; ‘The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green,’ after W. Owen; and a series of about twenty remarkably fine transcripts of pictures by his brother-in-law Morland, which are now much prized. He engraved many portraits from pictures by contemporary artists; also some historical and domestic subjects after Bol, Honthorst, Rubens, Bigg, Copley, Peters, J. Ward, R. Westall, and others, and several of the plates in ‘Gems of Art.’ From his own designs he executed in stipple a few charming female figures in the style of J. R. Smith. Ward was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1814, and he also held the appointment of mezzotint-engraver to the prince regent and the Duke of York. He lived latterly in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, and there he died suddenly on 1 Dec. 1826. In 1786 he married Maria Morland, sister of George Morland [q. v.], who at the same time married Ward's sister Anne. Ward
