Nathaniel Ward
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The Reverend Nathaniel Ward (1578 — October 1652) wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641.
He was born in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. He studied law and graduated from Cambridge University in 1603. He practised as a barrister and travelled in continental Europe. In Heidelberg he met a German Protestant reformer, David Pareus, who persuaded him to enter the ministry. In 1618 he was a clergyman at Elbing, in Prussia. He returned to England and in 1628 he was appointed rector of Stondon Massey in Essex. He was soon recognised as one of the foremost Puritan ministers in Essex, and so in 1631 was reprimanded by the Bishop of London, William Laud. In 1633, he was dismissed for his Puritan beliefs. (Ward's two brothers also suffered for their non-conformity.)
In 1634 Ward emigrated to Massachusetts and became a minister in Ipswich, Massachusetts for two years. He then resigned because of ill-health. While still living in Ipswich, he wrote for the colony of Massachusetts The Body of Liberties, which was adopted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first code of laws established in New England. The Body of Liberties defined liberty in terms that were advanced in their day, establishing a code of fundamental principles based on Common Law, Magna Carta and the Old Testament. However, Ward believed in theocracy rather than democracy. One of his epigrams was:
- The upper world shall Rule,
- While Stars will run their race:
- The nether world obey,
- While People keep their place.
Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Many say that The Body of Liberties began the American tradition of liberty, leading eventually to the United States Constitution.
In 1646 Ward completed his second book The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. This was published in England in January, 1646-7, under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard. He also wrote several other publications.
At the end of the English Civil War, when Puritan beliefs were acceptable, Ward returned to England. Ward became the minister of the church at Shenfield in Essex and died shortly after in Shenfield.
