Nathaniel Ward, a son of Samuel Ward, D.D., Ipswich (infra), was born at Haverhill, Suffolk, England, about 1570; entered of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1596, and received his degree of A.M., 1603; for a time practised law, and then travelled on the Continent; became preacher at St. James’s, Duke Place, London, 1626, and was afterwards Rector of Standon Massaye; was suspended by Laud for nonconformity, 1633, and in 1634 became pastor of Agawam, or Ipswich, Massachusetts; was the author of the “Body of Liberties,” the first code of laws established in New England, (adopted in 1641;) returned to England in 1645, became minister of Shenfield, Essex, and retained this connection until his death, in 1653, 1. “The Simple Cobler of Agavvam in America, Willing to help mend his Native Country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper-Leather and Sole, with all the honest stitches he can take,” &c…. 2. “Mercurius Anti-mechanicus, or the Simple Cobbler’s Boy with his Lap-full of Caveats,” &c.; by Theodore de la Guarden, Lon., 1648, 4to.

Simple Cobler of Agawam, 1647

  The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, willing to help ’mend his native country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper-leather and sole, with all the honest stitches he can take. And as willing never to be paid for his work, by old English wonted pay.

	It is his trade to patch all the year long, gratis,
	Therefore I pray, Gentlemen, keep your purses.

By Theodore de la Guard. In rebus arduis ac tenui spe, fortissima quaque consilia tutissima sunt. Cic. In English,

	When bootes and shoes are torne up to the lefts,
	Coblers must thrust their awls up to the hefts,
	This is no time to feare Apelles gramm:
	Ne Sutor quidem ultra crepidam.

London: Printed by J. D. & R. I. for Stephen Bowtell, at the signe of the Bible in Pope’s Head Alley, 1647.

  One of them, (Samuel Ward’s sons,) lately dead, was beneficed in Essex, and, following the counsel of the poet,

	Ridentem dicere verum
	Quis vetat?
	“What doth forbid but one may smile
	And also tell the Truth the while?”

hath in a jesting way, in some of his Books, delivered much Smart-Truth of this present times.

  The celebrated Nathaniel Ward, whose wit made him known to more Englands than one.

  This work is in its manner one of the most quaint and pedantick of a period when quaintness and pedantry were the fashion; and in its principles one of the most violent and enthusiastick of an age when violence and enthusiasm were almost universal…. This book had several editions in England and in this country; it is now scarce, and costs in England about thirty shillings.

  The most quaint and far fetched in vigorous expression of the early political and religious tracts generated in New England, is that piece of pedantic growling at toleration, and pungent advice to British Royalty, in closing a satire on the fashionable ladies of the day, the production of Nathaniel Ward, Pastor of the Church at Ipswich, which is entitled the “Simple Cobler of Agawam.”

  It is a tremendous partisan pamphlet, intensely vital even yet, full of fire, wit, whim, eloquence, sarcasm, invective, patriotism, bigotry. One would have to search long among the rubbish of books thrown forth to the public during those hot and teeming days, to find one more authentically representing the stir, the earnestness, the intolerance, the hope, and the wrath of the times than does this book.

  This early New England Sartor Resartus spoke freely that which he thought, and satirized sharply those thoughts, words, and deeds, in Old and New England, which he deemed harmful. He was not always polished, temperate, consistent, fair, or even funny; but he contrived to say some things effectively and nearly all things plainly, notwithstanding a cumbrous, punning, and pedantic style. He was a pseudo Hans Sachs in prose, talking from his cobbler’s bench, and trying to mend manners and morals. This literary device, however, proved rather burdensome, and was not constantly kept in mind. Ward felt that he was writing in earthquaking times, and he outspoke as a warning guide and prophet. A theoretical believer in religious and political freedom, he was as much afraid of anarchy and free-thought as he was of priestcraft and oppression. He wanted to whip others, while saving his own back. The moral which the Anglican drew from the book must have been: See what your Puritanism amounts to! Ward’s moral was: Crush dissent from our dissent; make our social laws still more rigid. He goes so far, indeed, that we half believe the whole thing a reductio ad absurdum, written in the interests of episcopacy and monarchy. “I am not tolerant,” he seems to shout to his English accusers; “I am as anxious to get rid of those who disagree with me, as you are to get rid of me.”

  This pungent satire, published at London in 1647, inveighs, sometimes with a caustic drollery, sometimes with a right manly vehemence, against the principle of religious toleration, the vanities of womankind, and the state of contemporary English politics.