Nathaniel Ward (1578 — October 1652) was a
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
clergyman and pamphleteer in England and
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. He wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641.
A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in
Haverhill, SuffolkHaverhill is an industrial market town in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies approximately fourteen miles southeast of Cambridge and sixty miles north of London. Haverhill is the second largest town in the borough of St Edmundsbury, and has a...
, England. He studied law and graduated from
Emmanuel CollegeEmmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
,
Cambridge UniversityThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
in 1603. He practised as a
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
and travelled in continental Europe. In
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
he met a German Protestant reformer,
David PareusDr. David Pareus was a German Protestant theologian and reformer.-Life:He was born at Frankenstein December 30, 1548. He was apprenticed to an apothecary and again to a shoemaker. In 1564 he entered the school of Christoph Schilling at Hirschberg, whom he accompanied to Amberg, in 1566; but...
, who persuaded him to enter the ministry.
Nathaniel Ward (1578 — October 1652) was a
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
clergyman and pamphleteer in England and
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. He wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641.
A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in
Haverhill, SuffolkHaverhill is an industrial market town in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies approximately fourteen miles southeast of Cambridge and sixty miles north of London. Haverhill is the second largest town in the borough of St Edmundsbury, and has a...
, England. He studied law and graduated from
Emmanuel CollegeEmmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
,
Cambridge UniversityThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
in 1603. He practised as a
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
and travelled in continental Europe. In
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
he met a German Protestant reformer,
David PareusDr. David Pareus was a German Protestant theologian and reformer.-Life:He was born at Frankenstein December 30, 1548. He was apprenticed to an apothecary and again to a shoemaker. In 1564 he entered the school of Christoph Schilling at Hirschberg, whom he accompanied to Amberg, in 1566; but...
, who persuaded him to enter the ministry. In 1618 he was a chaplain to a company of English merchants at
ElbingElbing may refer to:* German name of Elbląg, a city in northern Poland which until 1945 was a German city in the province of East Prussia* objects named after that city:** SMS Elbing, light cruiser of the Imperial Germany Navy** Elbing class torpedo boat...
, in Prussia. He returned to England and in 1628 he was appointed rector of
Stondon MasseyStondon Massey is a village in south Essex. It is situated to the north of Brentwood, between Blackmore and Doddinghurst. The village possesses a rural feel to it, and in its first entry to the 'Best kept village in Essex' competition, won 'Best New Entry'....
in
EssexEssex is a county in the East of England region of the United Kingdom. The county town of Essex is Chelmsford.-History:In pre-Roman Britain the territories of Suffolk and Essex were home to the Trinovantes tribe, which had grown wealthy through intensive trade with the Roman Empire, contemporary...
. He was soon recognised as one of the foremost
PuritanA Puritan of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant...
ministers in Essex, and so in 1631 was reprimanded by the
Bishop of London, William LaudArchbishop William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
. Although he escaped excommunication, in 1633 he was dismissed for his Puritan beliefs. (Ward's two brothers also suffered for their non-conformity.)
In 1634 Ward emigrated to
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
and became a minister in
IpswichIpswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island and Plum Island State Park...
for two years. He then resigned because of ill-health. While still living in Ipswich, he wrote for the colony of Massachusetts
The Body of LibertiesThe Massachusetts Body of Liberties was the first legal code to be established by European colonists in New England. Compiled by the Puritan minister Nathaniel Ward, the laws were established by the Massachusetts General Court in 1641. The Body of Liberties begins by establishing the exclusive...
, which was adopted by the
General CourtThe Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
of the Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first code of laws established in
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
.
The Body of Liberties defined liberty in terms that were advanced in their day, establishing a code of fundamental principles based on
Common LawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
, the
Magna CartaMagna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum , is an English legal charter, originally issued in the year 1215. It was written in Latin and is known by its Latin name...
and the
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
. However, Ward believed in
theocracyTheocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a higher sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In Common Greek, “theocracy” means a...
rather than democracy. One of his epigrams was:
- The upper world shall Rule,
- While Stars will run their race:
- The nether world obey,
- While People keep their place.
Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Some have said that
The Body of Liberties began the American tradition of liberty, leading eventually to the
United States ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
.
In 1645 Ward began his second book,
The Simple Cobler of AggawamAgawam may refer to:*Agawam, Massachusetts, USA*Agawam, Kentucky, USA*Agawam, Montana, USA*Agawam, Oklahoma, USA*Agawam , a hybrid grape variety*Camp Agawam, a boys summer camp in Raymond, Maine...
in America. This was published in England in January, 1646-7, before Ward's return there, under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard. Three other editions, with important additions and changes, soon followed. The
Simple Cobbler is a small book, which "in spite of its bitterness, and its lack of toleration" is "full of quaint originality, grim humor and power", according to the anthology
Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Transplanting of Culture 1607-1650 (1903).
According to the anthology, the book is "probably the most interesting literary performance" in the first half of the seventeenth century in the English colonies that later became the United States. The book was later reprinted in 1713 and 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts.
He also wrote several religious-political pamphlets.
At the end of the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
, when Puritan beliefs were acceptable, Ward returned to England. Ward became the minister of the church at Shenfield in Essex and died shortly after in Shenfield.