John Sebastian Marlow Ward (22 December 1885 – 1949) was an English author who published widely on the subject of Freemasonry and esotericism.

A thirteenth-century tithe barn, painstakingly taken down, transported in pieces and re-erected at Park Road, New Barnet, just outside London, was filled with priceless antiques and opened as a church in 1930.

On the same property an open-air museum, consisting of replica period buildings, filled with genuine antiquities was also constructed and became a major tourist attraction.

[2] Much of the collection was reluctantly sold but the rest still survives under the custodianship of the present members of his community at the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in Caboolture, Queensland, Australia.

He saw Freemasonry as the successor of the ancient traditions of learning, and sought to convince his fellow masons to use that position to promote inter-religious harmony.

According to his spiritualist book, Gone West, published in 1917, his first real link with the "other world" came in a dream early in December 1913 that predicted the death of his uncle H.J.

His poor eyesight had prevented him from joining the army, but the family had been represented on the Western Front by his younger brother, Reginald (Rex) who was eventually killed on Good Friday, 1916.

The account of how he first sought out the spirit of his dead brother and then assisted him to become established on the "astral plane" is the subject of his second spiritualist book A Subaltern in Spirit-Land also published in 1917.

He predicted a number of terrible events preceding the second coming of Jesus, including a devastating biological attack on New York City.

Although neither Ward nor his successors have ever stated an exact date for the arrival of Jesus on earth, they have consistently maintained that the event is relatively close.

Although descended from a line of clergy (both his father and grandfather were Anglican priests), neither Ward himself nor his younger brother, Rex, initially showed any desire for ordination.

Even after Rex's death Ward turned to Spiritualism rather than to the traditional Christianity of his father, with the aim of helping his brother in the afterlife.

Although never ordained in the Anglican Church, in 1927, Ward believing himself to be called by God to help prepare the world for the return of Christ, started a religious community dedicated to that end.

Initially this was formed within the Anglican Church, but when some of his views offended certain senior officials, Ward first joined and later came to lead a small Christian group that had originated in the Far East.

[8] One of those who took an interest in purchasing the items was Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), a friend of Ward's and pioneering figure in the Contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.

However, Gardner's specific interest was in magic and witchcraft, and so he decided to only obtain one of the Abbey's buildings, a 16th-century construct which Ward had claimed was a "Witch's Cottage".