ABSTRACT
Adolphus William Ward (1837-1924), historian, critic, and academic, is the name most associated with early Gaskell criticism. Son of a diplomat, and grandson of Martha, eldest sister of Dr Arnold of Rugby, Ward was educated partly in Germany, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he subsequently became a Fellow, and later Master. Although he was called to the bar, he never practised as a lawyer, and by 1866 was Professor of History and English Literature at Owens College, Manchester. He was a founder of the Manchester History School, and twice held office as Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University. Publishing in both the fields of history and literature, Ward was editor of the Cambridge Modern History (1901-12), and co-editor (with A. R. Waller) of the Cambridge History of English Literature (1907-16). He also wrote the entry on Gaskell for the Dictionary of National Biography. Notwithstanding his formidable reputation, Ward was not always factually accurate, whether in the DNB or elsewhere. He repeatedly states that Gaskell’s mother died when her youngest child was a month old (whereas she actually died a year later), and he even has the Gaskells present at Charlotte Bronte’s wedding in 1854 to Arthur Bell Nicholls, which was simply not the case. Even Ward, however, worked in difficult circumstances so far as his contact with the Gaskell project was concerned.
