William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley

For other people named William Ward, see William Ward (disambiguation).
"Property"
The Earl of Dudley as caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, June 1870.

William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (27 March 1817 – 7 May 1885), known as The Lord Ward from 1835 to 1860, was a British landowner and benefactor.

Background and education

Ward was born on 27 March 1817 at Edwardstone Boxford, Suffolk, England, the son of William Ward, 10th Baron Ward, who had succeeded in the barony of Ward on the death of his second cousin, Foreign Secretary John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, in 1833 (the earldom becoming extinct). His mother was Amelia, daughter of William Cooch Pillans. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity College, Oxford.[1] He played first-class cricket for Oxford University Cricket Club between 1838 and 1842.[2]

Career

The monument to William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, in Worcester Cathedral.

Between 1859 and 1877 Ward paid for the entire refacing and restoration of Worcester Cathedral[3] and there is a monument to him in the cathedral. In 1868 he defrayed one third of the cost of the tower and spire of St John the Baptist's Church at Hagley.[4] He was also a trustee of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.[1] In 1860 the earldom held by his kinsman was revived when he was created Viscount Ednam, of Ednam in the County of Roxburgh, and Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford.[5]

Family

Lord Dudley married, firstly, Selina Constance, daughter of Hubert de Burgh, on 24 April 1851. She died on 14 November of the same year, aged only 22. There were no children from this marriage.

He married, secondly, Georgina Elisabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 7th Baronet, and Lady Louisa Hay-Drummond, on 21 November 1865. They had six sons and one daughter:[6]

His sister-in-law Harriet Moncreiffe, who a few years later, as Lady Mordaunt, became embroiled in a sensational divorce case, referred to him as "frizzle wig".[9]

Ward died on 7 May 1885, aged 68, at Dudley House, Park Lane, Mayfair, in London, and was buried in Great Witley, Worcestershire. His remains were later reinterred in Worcester Cathedral.

The Countess of Dudley survived her husband by over forty years and died in February 1929 at her home at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park[10] at the age of 82, having spent over half her life as a widow.

References

  1. 1 2 thepeerage.com William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley
  2. ↑ CricketArchive: Lord Ward
  3. ↑ Folkes, J. Homery The Victorian Architect and George Edmund Street Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaelogical Society. Third Series Vol 4 1974 p9
  4. ↑ Folkes, J. Homery The Victorian Architect and George Edmund Street Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaelogical Society. Third Series Vol 4 1974 p9
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 22356. p. 518. 14 February 1860.
  6. ↑ "William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley". www.thepeerage.com. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  7. 1 2 "Ward, the Hon. Gerald Ernest Francis". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  8. ↑ "Gerald Ward". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  9. ↑ Elizabeth Hamilton (1999) The Warwickshire Scandal
  10. ↑ "Death of Georgina, Lady Dudley: A Great Lady of the Victorian Age". Glasgow Herald. 9 February 1929.

External links

William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley at Find a Grave

Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Earl of Dudley
1860–1885 		Succeeded by
William Humble Ward
Peerage of England
Preceded by
William Humble Ward		 Baron Ward
1835–1885 		Succeeded by
William Humble Ward
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