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Nathan Ward (missionary)

American physician and missionary (1804-1860)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ60743310 ↗
Source-derived summary

Nathan Ward (November 21, 1804 – November 24, 1860) was a physician born in Plymouth, New Hampshire who worked as a religious and medical missionary in Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1833 to 1846. Ward is most remembered for his work as the head physician of the Batticotta Seminary, where he served as a prominent educator and was influential in handling the cholera outbreak of 1846.

Early life and education

Nathan Ward was born on November 21, 1804, in Plymouth, New Hampshire. His mother was Sarah Ward and his father was Samuel Ward. He received his primary and secondary schooling in his birth town. Later, he attended Bowdoin College Medical School, the "Medical School of Maine" and graduated in 1832. After schooling, he moved to live in Vermont, where he met his wife and later settled to have kids.

Personal life

Ward married Hannah Ward on January 8, 1833. They met in Vermont, where Hannah was born. They lived in North Troy, Vermont for a couple of years before eventually settling in Burlington, Vermont.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Nathan Ward (missionary)” as american physician and missionary (1804-1860). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nathan, Ward and missionary.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1804, 1860, 1833, 1846—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1804-11-21. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Nathan, Ward and missionary providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nathan Ward (missionary)”, the useful work is to connect “american physician and missionary (1804-1860)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q60743310. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1804, 1860, 1833 and 1846.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nathan Ward (missionary)” 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.