Samuel Ward

Banker, born in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. His family moved to New York City (1790) and at age 14 he began working at the prominent banking house of Prime & Sands. By 1808 he was a partner and soon a head of the firm whose name changed to Prime, Ward & King. During the panic of 1837, he led New York's wealthiest financiers to forestall a repudiation of specie (script) payments by the state, and in 1838 he arranged a loan of $5 million in gold bars from the Bank of England for the New York banks. In 1839 he helped found and became first president of the Bank of Commerce. The strain of attempting to control a second specie payment crisis in Philadelphia, as well as problems among some Southern states that October, broke his health, and he died at the end of the month.

Samuel Ward (May 25, 1725 – March 26, 1776) was an American farmer, shop keeper, and statesman from Westerly, Rhode Island. He served as a colonial Governor of Rhode Island and later as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Samuel was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1725 to Richard Ward and his wife, Mary Tillinghast Ward. Richard was a merchant in Newport, and served as the colonial governor of Rhode Island in 1741 and 1742.

Ward began his public career when he was elected to the colony's General Assembly in 1756, and he served there until 1758. In 1761 the Assembly named him to the office of Chief Justice in Rhode Island's superior court.

In 1774, Rhode Island sent Ward to the Continental Congress. While at the Congress Ward contracted smallpox and died in Philadelphia three months before he would have signed the Declaration of Independence. He was originally buried in Philadelphia but, in 1860, he was reinterred in the Old Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. Ward was also one of those who joined together to found the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University) which he served as a trustee from 1764 until his death.

Governor Sam Ward was twice descended (in both his maternal and paternal lines) from Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island.