Note: Henry Jr. was not married to Mary (Waterhouse), but to her older sister, Elizabeth, who lived 1793-1824. Mary married William Ware, Henry Jr.’s younger sister.
Note: Henry Ware Jr. is of the fifth generation descended from Robert Ware, Sr.
“HENRY WARE, Jr. the fifth child and eldest son of Rev. Henry Ware, was born at Hingham, April 21, 1794. He was educated under the charge of his cousin Ashur Ware, and passed the year previous to his admission to Harvard at the Phillips Academy, Andover. He employed a portion of one of the winters of his four years of college life in teaching school, as a discipline of his own education. At the close of his course in 1812 he became an assistant in the Academy at Exeter, where he passed two years. He entered the profession of divinity, and became pastor of the Second Church in Boston in1816. He remained in this place for thirteen years with well deserved success as a preacher, when he was compelled to offer his resignation in consequence of ill health. In place of its acceptance a colleague was chosen to assist in the discharge of his duties. He about the same time accepted the Parkman Professorship of Pulpit Eloquence in the Divinity School of Harvard University. Before entering University the duties of his office he passed seventeen months in Europe. On his return he resigned his pastoral charge and devoted himself entirely to his professorship, until forced, in 1842, by ill health to resign his duties.
During this period he published in 1842 ‘The Life of the Saviour, ‘ as the first volume of the Sunday Library, a series projected by him with the design of affording attractive and appropriate reading for young persons of the day. Three other volumes by different writers subsequently appeared when the series was discontinued. In 1834 he prepared a ‘Memoir of the Rev. Dr. Parker,’ of Portsmouth, to accompany a volume of sermons from the pen of that divine, who had recently died; and in 1885 a selection from the writings of Dr. Priestly, with a notice of his life … He also prepared a number of lectures and addresses delivered on various occasions, and numerous poems and essays for periodicals connected with his denomination.
He died September 22, 1843…
A Memoir of the Life of Henry Ware, Jr., by his brother, John Ware, M.D., appeared in 1846 in two volumes. It contains a selection from his letters, and presents a pleasant and satisfactory view of his life…
Mary L. Ware the wife of Henry Ware, Jr., survived her husband a few years dying in April, 1849. She was a woman of great elevation of mind and active benevolence, qualities which have been commemorated in an admirable Biography by Edward B. Hall. This gentleman married a sister of Henry Ware, Jr. and holds a leading position among the Unitarian clergy.”
Source: Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. 2, Evart A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck, Charles Scribner, publisher, 1856, pages 173-5
Good afternoon. I work at the Cambridge Historical Commission and was responding to a research question, which led me to the Ware family. Please note that Henry Jr. was not married to Mary (Waterhouse), but to her older sister, Elizabeth, who lived 1793-1824. Mary married William Ware, Henry Jr.’s younger sister. (Also this date must be in error– “During this period he published in 1882 ‘The Life of the Saviour,‘ . . .”–Henry died in 1843.) Thanks!