William Ware
William Ware was an American minister and writer born in 1797, notable for being the first Unitarian minister in New York City and for his contributions to early American religious literature. He grew up in a religious family; his father was a pastor, and after his mother's death, the family relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ware pursued his education at Harvard College, graduating in 1816. He served several congregations in Connecticut and Vermont before moving to New York City in 1821. Besides his pastoral duties, Ware was a prolific writer, publishing his first novel, *Zenobia*, in 1837, which marked him as a pioneering author of American religious novels. After a brief hiatus from ministry, he took over *Christian Examiner*, enhancing its literary sections. Ware's later years were marked by personal challenges, including a diagnosis of epilepsy, yet he remained active in both ministry and writing until his death in 1852. His legacy includes a commitment to social issues, as demonstrated by his involvement in an antislavery declaration signed by Unitarian ministers.
On this Page
Subject Terms
William Ware
Writer
- Born: August 3, 1797
- Birthplace: Hingham, Massachusetts
- Died: February 19, 1852
- Place of death: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Biography
William Ware, a nineteenth century American minister and writer, was born in 1797, one of the ten children of Mary Clark Ware and Henry Ware, a pastor at the First Unitarian Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. Ware’s mother died in 1805 and the family subsequently moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. There, Ware’s father took on the position of Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College, and William began studying under his cousin, Ashur Ware, a future Harvard professor of Greek, and Reverend John Allyne.
Ware attended Harvard for four years as a teenager, graduating in 1816, and then studying under Revered Henry Coleman in his hometown of Hingham before returning to Harvard in 1817 to enter the Divinity School. During his three years at Harvard, he worked as a teacher and in the Harvard library. Ware started preaching in 1820, initially serving Connecticut and Vermont congregations until December, 1821, when he began work at New York City’s First Unitarian Church. Ware, the city’s first Unitarian minister, was intensely self-consciousness and a reserved orator who continually questioned his position. However, he was considered a bright and talented writer by those who received his letters and by those who later read his novels.
In June, 1823, Ware married Mary Waterhouse, with whom he had seven children. In subsequent years, Ware edited Unitarian magazines and published pamphlets on religious issues. In early 1836, he published pieces in Knickerbocker Magazine entitled “Letters from Lucius M. Piso,” extracts from a novel he was then writing. After nearly fifteen years at the First Unitarian Church, Waterhouse resigned his position, moved with his family to Brookline, Massachusetts, and finished writing his first novel. The book, Letters of Lucius M. Piso, from Palmyra, to His Friend Marcus Curtius, at Rome, appeared in 1837 and was republished the following year as Zenobia: Or, The Fall of Palmyra, a Historical Romance, in Letters of Lucius M. Piso from Palmyra, to His Friend Marcus Curtius at Rome. This first novel established Ware’s fame as the earliest writer of American religious novels.
Ware returned to the pulpit, preaching in Waltham, Massachusetts, between June, 1837, and April, 1838, and then moved to a Jamaica Plain farm, where he was residing when the sequel to Letters of Lucius M. Piso was published in June, 1838. Back in Cambridge the following year, Ware took over the Christian Examiner and strengthened its sections on poetry and book reviews. He published the first chapters of his third novel, Julian: Or, Scenes in Judea, in the Christian Examiner before the entire novel was published as a book in 1841; it was to be Ware’s last work of fiction. Ware left the Christian Examiner in 1843 to once again become a pastor, starting a new job in West Cambridge in January, 1844. Soon thereafter, he was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Ware was among 173 Unitarian ministers who signed an antislavery declaration in 1844, not long before a seizure paralyzed him for a time. He recovered enough to resume ministerial duties in 1847 and to travel through Europe in 1848 and 1849. A lecture series he presented in late 1849 and early 1850 was published as Sketches of European Capitals (1851). He died in Cambridge on February 19, 1852.