Ashur Ware was born in Sherborn, Massachussets, the third of the five children of Joseph and Grace (Coolidge) Ware, and a descendant of Robert Ware who was in Dedham, Massachussets, as early as 1642. His father, a farmer who had lost an arm at the battle of White Plains, was in spite of his lack of a formal education an able surveyor, and was frequently called upon to teach in the town schools.
Education
His father prepared him for college with the aid of the local minister, and Ashur was graduated at Harvard in 1804.
Career
For a time he was assistant to Dr. Benjamin Abbot at Phillips Academy, Exeter, and later tutor in the family of his uncle Henry Ware, a well-known Unitarian clergyman of Cambridge. At this period he was attracted toward the ministry, but a close study of doctrines led him to a liberal position, and this fact, since he was not a controversialist by nature, caused him to turn to other fields. From 1807 to 1811 he was tutor in Greek at Harvard, and from 1811 to 1815, professor of Greek. He then studied law in the office of Loammi Baldwin in Cambridge, and with his classmate, Joseph E. Smith of Boston. He engaged less in legal practice than in politics, however. With Henry Orne he edited in Boston a Democratic paper called the Yankee. In 1817 he moved to Portland, in the District of Maine, partly because of the opportunities there for the practice of law, but mainly to edit the Eastern Argus, a paper then engaged in promoting the separation of Maine from Massachusetts. His reputation as a writer and orator continued to grow, and he was an active force both in Maine's "home rule" politics and in the Democratic party. When Maine was made a state in 1820, Ware became secretary of state. On Feburary 15, 1822, President Monroe appointed him judge of the United States district court in Maine. American maritime law was still in its infancy and Ware, by close examination of British precedents and a study of French and Roman law in the original languages, became, in the opinion of Justice Story, perhaps the ablest American authority in this field. His sympathies were often with the seaman and his decisions, not always welcome to the masters and owners of vessels, did much to raise the standard of life aboard ship. His opinions were collected and published in 1839 and 1849, and each publication went through a second edition.
Achievements
Connections
On June 20, 1831, he married, in Portland, Sarah Morgridge, who died June 30, 1870; they had four children.