Ward, Artemas, 1727-1800

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>11/02/1792 MA - At-Large Lost 0.54% (-52.14%)</li>
<li>11/02/1792 MA District 2 - 1st Trial Lost 0.68% (-35.16%)</li>
<li>11/02/1792 MA District 2 - Worcester Won 64.41% (+39.70%)</li>
<li>11/26/1790 MA District 7 - 2nd Trial Won 51.04% (+5.49%)</li>
<li>10/04/1790 MA District 7 - 1st Trial Won 35.55% (+0.00%)</li>
<li>03/02/1789 MA District 8 - 3rd Trial Lost 7.20% (-48.17%)</li>
<li>01/29/1789 MA District 8 - 2nd Trial Lost 11.14% (-33.78%)</li>
<li>01/07/1789 MA Presidential Elector - District 08 Lost 6.19% (-5.77%)</li>
<li>12/18/1788 MA District 8 - 1st Trial Lost 15.06% (-20.20%)</li>
<li>12/31/1780 MA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>Artemas Ward (November 26, 1727 – October 28, 1800) was an American major general in the American Revolutionary War and a Congressman from Massachusetts. He was considered an effective political leader, President John Adams describing him as "universally esteemed, beloved and confided in by his army and his country."</p>

<p>Artemas Ward was born at Shrewsbury in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1727 to Nahum Ward (1684–1754) and Martha (Howe) Ward. He was the sixth of seven children. His father had broad and successful career interests as a sea captain, merchant, land developer, farmer, lawyer and jurist. As a child he attended the common schools and shared a tutor with his brothers and sisters. He graduated from Harvard in 1748 and taught there briefly.</p>

<p>On July 31, 1750, he married Sarah Trowbridge (December 3, 1724 – December 13, 1788), the daughter of Reverend Caleb Trowbridge and Hannah Trowbridge of Groton. The young couple returned to Shrewsbury where Artemas opened a general store. In the next fifteen years they would have eight children: Ithamar in 1752, Nahum (1754), Sara (1756), Thomas (1758), Artemas Jr. (1762), Henry Dana (1768), Martha (1760), and Maria (1764).</p>

WARD, Artemas, (father of Artemas Ward, Jr.), a Delegate and a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Shrewsbury, Mass., November 26, 1727; attended the common schools and was prepared for college by a private tutor; was graduated from Harvard College in 1748; justice of the peace in 1752; a representative in the general assembly many terms and served in the executive council; lieutenant colonel in the provincial army during the French and Indian War; appointed brigadier general by the provincial congress of Massachusetts on October 27, 1774, and was made commander in chief of the Massachusetts forces on May 19, 1775; appointed by the Continental Congress as major general on June 17, 1775; chief justice of the court of common pleas of Worcester County in 1776 and 1777; president of the Massachusetts Executive Council 1777-1779; member of the State house of representatives 1779-1785, serving as speaker in 1785; Member of the Continental Congress 1780-1781; elected to the Second and Third Congresses (March 4, 1791-March 3, 1795); died in Shrewsbury, Mass., October 28, 1800; interment in Mountain View Cemetery.