Bishop Seth Ward
Bishop Seth Ward was born at Buntingford, in the parish of Aspenden, Hertfordshire, in 1617. His early education was at the grammar school there and, still under 16, he was admitted as a sizar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, of which college he was afterwards elected a fellow. Ejected from Cambridge for refusing the Solemn League and Covenant and other oaths, he migrated to Oxford, where in 1649 he became Savillian Professor of Astronomy and, from 1659 to 1660, President of Trinity College. Here he became one of the earliest Fellows of the Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge by Experiment.
King Charles II appointed him to the livings of St Lawrence Jewry in London, and Uplowman, Devonshire, in 1661. Dr. Ward also became dean of Exeter Cathedral (1661) and rector of St Breock, Cornwall in 1662. In the latter year he was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, and on 16th September 1667 he was translated to the see of Salisbury. The office of Chancellor of the Order of the Garter was conferred on him in 1671.
He died at Knightsbridge on 6 January 1689.
All dates quoted are Old Style.
