Patience Ward

He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Ward of Tanshelf, near Pontefract and was born there on 7 December 1629; he received the name of Patience from his father, who was disappointed at not having a daughter.

He later set up in business for himself in St. Lawrence Pountney Lane, where he occupied a portion of the ancient mansion variously known as 'Manor of the Rose' and Poultney's Inn, the house having formerly belonged to Sir John Pulteney (Poultney):[2] the house is shown in Ogilby and Morgan's 'Map of London,' 1677, and in the plan of Walbrook and Dowgate wards in Noorthouck's 'New History of London' (p. 612).

The pageant was arranged by Thomas Jordan the city poet; it was of great magnificence, and was provided at the cost of the Merchant Taylors' Company.

Ward's sympathies, like those of his colleague Sir Humphrey Edwin, were strongly opposed to the high-church party, and probably inclined to the dissenters.

Ward, who sided with the opposition, had the unthankful task of presenting this address, and the first attempt to do so failed, the deputation being told to meet the king at Hampton Court on 19 May.

The court party succeeded this year in turning their opponents out of the city lieutenancy, and the lord mayor lost his commission as a colonel of a regiment of the trained bands.

At the close of his mayoralty Ward was succeeded by Sir John Moore, a partisan of the court, after the unusual resort to a poll.

One of the final incidents in Ward's mayoralty was the resolution of the corporation to undertake the business of fire insurance on behalf of the citizens.

Ward died on 10 July 1696, and was buried in the south corner of the chancel of St Mary Abchurch, where a mural monument to his memory was set up.

There was a full-length portrait of Ward in his mayoral robes at Merchant Taylors' Hall, and a small watercolour copy in the Guildhall Library.