Samuel Ward was an American farmer, politician, Supreme Court Justice, Governor of Rhode Island and a delegate to the Continental Congress. Born in Newport, he was the son of Rhode Island Governor Richard Ward.
Ward got his start in politics as a delegate from Westerly and was elected Governor in 1758. He was defeated by his political rival Stephen Hopkins in 1762 but later returned to the position in 1766. During the debate of the Stamp Act in 1765, Ward became widely respected in Patriot circles due to his staunch opposition to the British tax.
Ward was an early supporter of Brown University and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention until his death from smallpox in March 1776. Originally buried in Philadelphia, he was reinterred in the Common Burial Ground in Newport in 1860.