Samuel Ward was born in Newport, R. I, one of the fourteen children of Richard Ward and Mary (Tillinghast) Ward. Since his father was not only a prosperous merchant, but governor of the colony from 1740 to 1742, the boy grew up in the brilliant society of colonial Newport.
He was educated in the grammar school, but was not sent to college because he was destined by his father to be a farmer.
Ward's election in 1756 as deputy to the Rhode Island Assembly marked the beginning of his public service. For more than a decade thereafter there was a political feud between Ward and Stephen Hopkins of Providence, based on personal antipathy, political differences, and, fundamentally, on sectional rivalry. The colony was divided into two hostile camps: the conservative group, the merchants, found a champion in Ward, while the radicals looked to Hopkins. Three times the Ward party triumphed by the election of their leader as governor - in 1762, 1765, and 1766; three times also it met defeat. In 1761 Ward served as chief justice of the colony. His first term as governor (1762) was uneventful politically, but in his second term (1765), he signed the charter of Rhode Island College (later Brown University), of which he was an original trustee. His second and third terms (1765, 1766) came during the years of agitation over the Stamp Act. His commercial upbringing led him to sympathize with the colonists and, although anxious to maintain law and order, he supported their cause vigorously. He refused to take the oath to submit to, or enforce, the Stamp Act; he denied the request of the collectors of the customs for an extra guard; and he protested to Captain Antrobus of the British vessel Maidstone against the impressment of Rhode Islanders into the Royal Navy. Defeated in 1767 for reëlection, Ward retired to Westerly, but kept in touch with the course of events. He was among the first to hold at his home an indignation meeting over the punishment of Boston after the "Tea Party, " and he prepared a series of resolutions which set forth comprehensively the colonial grievances. When the First Continental Congress was called, he and his former adversary Hopkins were chosen delegates. Little is known of the part he played in this assemblage, but he was reëlected to the Second Continental Congress. In 1776 the sentiment of the Ward family was rapidly crystallizing in favor of independence. Henry Ward, brother of the former governor, was secretary of state of Rhode Island and performed some of the functions of the governor in place of the Loyalist, Joseph Wanton, and Samuel Ward's son Samuel, 1756-1832, with the consent and approbation of his father, received a commission as captain in the 16t Rhode Island Regiment. From the opening of the Second Continental Congress Ward was an active member of the little group of statesmen who were seeking some formula to guide the colonies. Early in the session he was called by Hancock to preside over the Congress when it resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole, and for several months regularly served as chairman at such times. He died of smallpox, contracted in Philadelphia while the Congress was deliberating.
Quotations: "When I first entered this contest with Great Britain, I extended my view through the various scenes which my judgment or imagination pointed out to me. I saw clearly that the last act of this cruel tragedy would close in fields of blood. I have traced the progress of this unnatural war through burning towns, devastation of the country and every subsequent evil. I have realized with regard to myself, the bullet, the bayonet, and the halter; and, compared with the immense object I have in view, they are all less than nothing. .. . Heaven save my country, is my first, my last, and almost my only prayer. "
In 1745 he married Anne Ray and settled on a farm in Westerly. Five sons and six daughters were born to them.
