Background
John William Ward was the only child of William, third Viscount Dudley and Ward, and his wife, Julia, second daughter of Godfrey Bosville of Thorpe and Gunthwaite in Yorkshire. He was born on 9 August 1781.
John William Ward was the only child of William, third Viscount Dudley and Ward, and his wife, Julia, second daughter of Godfrey Bosville of Thorpe and Gunthwaite in Yorkshire. He was born on 9 August 1781.
He was educated by private tutors. He then went to Oriel College, Oxford, in 1799, and graduated with a B.A. from Corpus Christi College on 16 June 1802, obtaining his M.A. in 1813. In 1802 he became a resident pupil of Dugald Stewart, along with Lord Lansdowne, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Ashburton.
Wards political career began in 1802, when he became M.P. for Downton in Wiltshire. He was a follower of William Pitt (the Younger), and George Canning was his close friend. Ward supported Lord Grenville in 1804 and Charles James Fox, and was subsequendy a firm supporter of Canning. On 1 August 1803 he stood for Worcestershire in a by-election and was elected without opposition. In 1806 he was elected M.P. for Petersfield, in Hampshire, and in 1807 he became M.P. for Wareham, in Dorset. In 1812 he became M.P. for Ilchester, in Somerset; and in 1819, after being out of Parliament for six months, he became M.P. for Bossiney, in Cornwall. He retained that seat until 1823, when he succeeded to his father’s peerage.
Although he was a member of the House of Commons for almost 21 years, Ward spoke rarely and refused a number of junior posts. Therefore, when George Canning appointed him foreign secretary in April 1827 (a post he held until May 1828), Ward had no prior experience of government.
As foreign secretary he did little more than carry out Canning’s decisions; and though he continued for a time as foreign secretary in the government of the Duke of Wellington in 1828, he resigned with other Canningites, including Lord Palmerston and William Huskisson, in May 1829.
In his later years Dudley was forgetful of mind and began conducting conversations with himself. He was eventually put under restraint at Norwood, in Surrey, where he suffered a stroke and died on 6 March 1833.