Ward, Seth, Dd, Frs

Ward, Seth, D.D., F.R.S.

an eminent English divine and mathematician, was born at Buntingford, Hertfordshire, in 1617. He graduated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, about 1637, and became a fellow of the same college in 1640; but was ejected from his fellowship in 1643, for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant. He then became a private tutor, and afterwards went to Oxford, where he was chosen Savilian professor of astronomy in 1649, and remained at that post until 1661. He was elected principal of Jesus College in 1657, but did not receive possession; and president of Trinity College in 1659 but was obliged to resign this position at the Restoration, in 1660. The same year, however, he received the vicarage of St. Lawrence, Jewry, London, and the precentorship of Exeter; and was promoted to the deanery of Exeter in 1661. He became bishop of Exeter in 1662, bishop of Salisbury in 1667, chancellor of the Order of the Garter in 1671, prebendary of Salisbury in 1672, archdeacon of Wilts in 1675, prebendary of Winchester in 1676, chancellor of Salisbury in 1681, and treasurer of Salisbury in 1687. In 1682 he founded at Salisbury a college for the widows of clergymen. About 1687 he lost his mental faculties, and died at Knightsbridge, January 6, 1689. He was a distinguished astronomer, and one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was the author of An Essay on the Being and Attributes of God; on the Immortality of the Soul, etc. (Oxford, 1652): — a volume of Sermons (Lond. 1674): — Praelectio de Cometis, etc. (1653): — Astronomia Geometrica (1656): — and other works.