John Ward was born in Canterbury and baptised 15 February 1590 at St Mary Bredman.  He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and likely King’s scholar at Canterbury Grammar School 1604 – 7. He appears to have stayed in Canterbury until at least 1607 and then went to London where he served Sir Henry Fanshawe (1569–1616) as a musician.  Fanshawe, as patron of the arts, was a musician himself owning, amongst other instruments, a viol.

Ward married Thomasine, daughter of Thomas Clee of London, dwelling at Tower Dock and had at least 5 children. Records show that he held property in Ilford Magna, Essex, where he died in 1638.  Although John Ward retained his job in the remembrancer’s office in London until the year of his death,  he appears in the 1630s to have been assigned the mastership of the Hospital Chapel of St Mary & St Thomas of Canterbury in Ilford.