Artemas Ward was born at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, on November 26, 1727. He was descended from William Ward, a Puritan, one of the original settlers of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachussets His father, Nahum Ward, was a founder of Shrewsbury, where Artemas was born, and his mother was Martha How, the daughter of Capt. Daniel How and Elizabeth Kerley.
He attended school in Shrewsbury and was graduated at Harvard College in 1748.
After teaching for a brief period in Groton, he established, in 1750, a general store in Shrewsbury, which he continued to run until the burden of his official duties forced him to abandon it. He was elected to many town offices including those of assessor, clerk, selectman, moderator, and treasurer. On January 21, 1762, he was appointed a justice of the Worcester county court of common pleas, and later, in 1775, he became its chief justice. During the French and Indian War he took part in Abercromby's ill-starred attack upon Ticonderoga in 1758 and was promoted from the rank of major to that of colonel in the provincial militia. The hardships of the campaign impaired his health and thereafter he was never robust. For many years he represented Shrewsbury in the General Court, distinguishing himself by his opposition to royal authority. In 1768 he was one of the "Glorious Ninety-two" who refused to vote for the rescinding of Samuel Adams' famous "Circular Letter. " So obnoxious to Governor Bernard was his conduct that the latter deprived him of his military commission in 1766, and in 1768 and 1769 vetoed his election to the council. Hutchinson, succeeding Bernard, reluctantly approved his election in 1770, and Ward remained a member of the board until 1774. In the organization of resistance to General Gage as governor, during the autumn and winter of 1774-75, he played an important rôle, serving as a member of the conventions held in Worcester County to champion colonial rights and of the First and Second Provincial congresses. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Shrewsbury, he lay ill, but at dawn on the following day, April 20, he mounted his horse and rode to Cambridge, where he assumed command of the patriot forces under authority granted to him by the Second Provincial Congress. On May 19 he was formally commissioned general and commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts troops. During the following weeks he directed the siege of Boston and began the conversion of the undisciplined bands of militia-men into an army. He was not present at the battle of Bunker Hill because he believed it to be his duty to remain at his headquarters in Cambridge, but he designated the detachments participating in it and issued the orders he considered necessary. On June 17 the Continental Congress, which had chosen Washington for the supreme command of the American forces, selected Ward as second in command with the rank of major-general. Upon arriving at Cambridge, Washington assigned to Ward the command of the right wing. On March 4, 1776, Ward ordered General Thomas to seize Dorchester Heights, thus forcing the British to evacuate Boston. Shortly thereafter, on March 22, he tendered his resignation on the ground of failing health. It was accepted by Congress on April 23, but at Washington's request, he remained temporarily in command of the forces left in Massachusetts after the withdrawal of the main body to New York. Until relieved by William Heath, on Mar. 20, 1777, he devoted his attention chiefly to strengthening the defenses of Boston. During the next three years he served on the Executive Council. From 1780 to 1781 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and from 1782 to 1787, barring one year, a member of the state legislature. He appeared on many committees of the latter body and was elected speaker. During Shays's Rebellion he defended the judiciary in a speech before a mob which had assembled about the steps of the court house in Worcester. He served as a Federalist in the First and Second congresses (1791-93, 1793 - 95), and was assigned to many committees dealing with military affairs. In 1798 illness compelled him to resign his position on the bench. He died of paralysis and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Shrewsbury.
Quotations:
"I am not a politician, and my other habits are good, also. "
"Trouble will come soon enough, and when he does come receive him as pleasantly as possible. The more amiably you greet him, the sooner he will go away. "
"The Puritans nobly fled from a land of despotism to a land of freedim, where they could not only enjoy their own religion, but could prevent everybody else from enjoyin his. "
"It is true, that all married men have their own way, but the trouble is they don't all have their own way of having it. "
"I prefer temperance hotels - although they sell worse kinds of liquor than any other kind of hotels. "
"We wish genius and morality where affectionate companions, but it is a fact that they are often bitter enemies. They don't necessarily coalesce any more than oil and water do. "
"A writer who can't write in a grammerly manner better shut up shop. "
Whatever his official position, Ward was conscientious, hard-working, and inflexible in his opinions. Deeply devoted to the interests of Massachusetts, he believed that Providence had set a seal of especial favor upon the state and that its citizens were the chosen people. His relations with Washington lacked cordiality. He resented the strictures which Washington passed upon the men of Massachusetts at the outbreak of the Revolution. When Washington visited the state in 1789, he passed Ward's house but the general was not present to greet him.
Quotes from others about the person
President John Adams describing him as ". .. universally esteemed, beloved and confided in by his army and his country. "
On July 31, 1750, he was married to Sarah Trowbridge of Groton, a descendant of John Cotton, and she became the mother of his eight children.
