WARD, William

No definite evidence of Ward’s parentage has been discovered, but he was probably a member of the family of this name which resided at Bridgwater in the first quarter of the fifteenth century. The Bridgwater merchant Richard Ward† and his son John, who in 1403 were implicated in the plundering of a Spanish ship, between them attested the Bridgwater elections to the Parliaments of 1410, 1413 (May), 1414 (Nov.), 1415 and 1419, and Richard served two terms as steward of the borough in the early years of Henry IV’s reign as well as representing it in the Commons in 1407.2 C241/169/34; CIMisc. vii. 196, 270; Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1400-45 (Som. Rec. Soc. lviii), 502, 561. Although no definite evidence of their kinship has been discovered, it seems likely that the Bridgwater MP of 1453 came from the same stock, and had built up trading connexions at Bridport that allowed for his return by that borough in 1450.3 There was, however, a Bristol mercer of the same name active at this period, and in view of William Ward’s absence from the records of both of the boroughs that he represented, it is just possible that it was the mercer who sat for either or both boroughs. The mercer resided in the parish of All Saints, and served terms as churchwarden in 1429-30 and 1446-48, as well as being appointed a royal tax collector in Bristol in Mar. 1442: CFR, xvii. 224; Recs. All Saints Bristol, i (Bristol Rec. Soc. xlvi), 46, 47, 58, 61, 65, 67, 69, 73, 75, 80, 82, 83, 84. He is not recorded in Bristol after 1450, and may either have died or have moved south to serve the Crown at Bridgwater and Poole.

Ward’s reasons for seeking election to Parliament remain obscure, but he was probably an attractive candidate for the boroughs that returned him, for his services came cheap. In 1450 the community of Bridport paid him and his colleague John Burgess II* just 13s. 4d. between them,4 Dorset Hist. Centre, Bridport bor. recs., ‘Domesday Bk.’, DC/BTB/M11, f. 146. while in 1453-4 Ward and John Mauncell* shared a payment of 40s. from the borough of Bridgwater.5 Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68 (Som. Rec. Soc. lx), 774. Nothing is known of Ward’s activities in either of the two Parliaments of which he was a Member, but in 1453 he may have attracted some attention, for on the day after the end of the second session he was granted the valuable office of controller of customs at Bridgwater, the port which he was then representing.6 CPR, 1452-61, p. 25. He continued in post for just over two years, and subsequently went on to serve two spells as searcher in the Dorset port of Poole. The Yorkist administration which took power after the battle of Northampton in July 1460 removed him from office, and the remainder of his career is obscure. It is possible that it was the former MP who in August 1461 on behalf of Bishop Bekynton of Bath and Wells receiving at the Exchequer repayment of a loan of £100 to the Crown,7 E403/823, m. 6. but nothing certain is known about him subsequently.