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John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward

British politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ16833884 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward (22 February 1725 – 10 October 1788) was a British peer and politician.

He was the son of John Ward, 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward, and his first wife Anna Maria (née Bourchier) and educated at Oriel College, Oxford.

He was returned to Parliament as one of two representatives for Marlborough in 1754, a seat he held until 1761, and then represented Worcestershire until 1774. The latter year he succeeded his father in the viscountcy and entered the House of Lords. Ward married Mary Baker née Fair, daughter of Gamaliel Fair, gardener and seeds-man, who died on 17 December 1758, aged 69.

Ward died in October 1788, aged 63. As he had no sons he was succeeded in the viscountcy by his half-brother William.

Family

He had a natural daughter Anna Maria Ward (1778–1837), by his Viscountess (when she was still Mrs. Mary Baker, whom he later married on 15 July 1788). Lord Dudley in his will made an ample provision for the girl and appointed his widow, who died in 1810, and Henry Jerome de Salis as her guardians.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward” is british politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Ward and Viscount, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1725, 1788, 1754, 1761—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1725-02-22. For this dossier, John, Ward and Viscount is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16833884. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1725, 1788, 1754 and 1761.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward primary sources, John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.