WARD, RICHARD, seaman employed by the HBC intermittently between 1698 and 1720; d. some time before November 1729.

In 1698 and in 1699–1700 Ward was employed at Albany and on the East Main. He left the company on his return to England in 1700 and served for some while in the Royal Navy in the War of the Spanish Succession. In February 1711 the company secured his release from the navy in order that he might command its supply ship, Pery. He sailed this ship to Albany that year, but ran her aground on a sand-bar in the river’s mouth, where she broke up. Much of her cargo of trade goods was saved, and Ward wintered at Albany. In 1712 he sailed home as captain of the Knight.

Four years later he applied to the company again and was given command of the Hudson’s Bay [III] supply-ship, which Joseph Davis had failed to navigate into York the previous year. Ward successfully sailed the Hudson’s Bay [III] to York in 1716 with long-awaited provisions and trade goods for James Knight, the commander of that post and the company’s governor in the bay. In 1717 Ward commanded the same ship on the round trip to Churchill and in 1718 to York. In 1719 he once more sailed to Churchill, but from that post he continued his voyage to York, and was wrecked at Cape Tatnum on 24 August. He successfully reached York after abandoning his ship, wintered there, and returned to England in 1720 with Capt. Gofton on the Hannah. He was not again employed by the company.

Richard Glover