James Ward was the son of Nathaniel Ward*. He emigrated with his father in
1634. Ward settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, and James was sent to Harvard.
In the spring of 1644, James Ward and John Weld* (son of Thomas Weld*)
broke into the houses of Joshua Hewes and Joseph Weld*, and stole money
and gunpowder. John Winthrop recorded:
Two of our ministers' sons, being students in the college, robbed two dwelling
houses in the night ... Being found out, they were ordered by the governours
of the college to be whipped, which was performed by the president
himself - yet they were about 20 yeares of age ...
A document survives which says Ward was 'whipp' d publiquely in the Colledge
at Cambridge ... and expelled out of the said Colledge', but Ward graduated
BA in 1645. On 3 December 1646 his father obtained a certificate attesting the
degree, to take to England.
James Ward was incorporated BA at Oxford, 10 October 1648, the first
Harvard student to take up that opportunity. In 1648 he graduated MA and
became a fellow of Magdalen College. In 1649, he graduated Bachelor of
Physic.
WJ, 510; Mass. Archives, 38B: 39; Harvard Recs. I, 83.
Al. Oxon., CC, Sibley.
