Samuel Ward (25 May 1725-26 March 1776) was Governor of Rhode Island from 1762 to 1763 (interrupting Stephen Hopkins' terms) and from 1765 to 1767 (interrupting Hopkins' terms). He was also a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774, and he died of smallpox three months before the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.
Biography[]
Samuel Ward was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1725, the son of Governor Richard Ward and the maternal great-great-grandson of Roger Williams. The ninth of fourteen children, Ward became a deputy from Westerly in 1756, and he developed a rivalry with Stephen Hopkins due to Ward's advocacy of the use of hard currency (in opposition to Hopkins' support for paper currency). For ten years, the two men went back and forth as Governor of Rhode Island, and Ward took part in the establishment of Brown University and in opposition to the Stamp Act. After 1768, Ward and Hopkins ended their rivalry and became friends, serving as Rhode Island's delegates to the Continental Congress. Ward died of smallpox three months before the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.