biography text
Returned unopposed as a Tory at Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1727, Ward consistently voted against the Administration till he lost his seat in 1734. During the negotiations which led to the Forty-five rebellion, his name was sent to the French by the English Jacobites as one of their most influential and wealthiest members.1AEM and D Angl. 82, ff. 4-23. In the tumultuous county election of 1747, when he took an active part in the campaign against the Leveson Gowers, who had deserted the Tories, Lord Gower complained to Newcastle that Ward was ‘endeavouring to undermine’ his interest in the county ‘by all the little low dirty tricks you can imagine’.2Add. 32709, f. 61.
He died 6 May 1774.