Edward Ward (judge)

He was a student at Clifford's Inn, and was then admitted in June 1664 at the Inner Temple; he was called to the bar in 1670, and obtained a practice in the exchequer court.

On 6 November 1684 he was leading counsel for his father-in-law, Thomas Papillon, in the action for false imprisonment brought against him by Sir William Pritchard.

Ward's argument was interrupted by Chief-justice George Jeffreys, who declared that he had made a long speech but did not understand what he was about.

On 25 November 1684 Ward appeared in the exchequer court for Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, in the action of scandalum magnatum against John Starkey, a juryman of Cheshire, by which county he had recently been presented as a disaffected person.

In July of that year he acted as one of the counsel for Dr. John Elliott, Captain Vaughan, and Mr. Mould, who were impeached by the Commons for circulating King James's declaration.

The most important case over which Ward presided was the trial of Captain William Kidd and his associates for piracy and murder in May 1701.

Jane, the eldest daughter, married Thomas Hunt of Boreatton, in the parish of Baschurch, Shropshire, and was ancestress of the Ward-Hunt family.