The Whigs Unmask'd

Edward 'Ned' Ward (1667 - 1731), a publican by trade and a satirical writer by vocation, first enjoyed success with his Trip to Jamaica, published in 1698. This led to a series of other satirical travel books, including to New England, to Islington, to Sadler's Wells, to Bath, and to Stourbridge. Adapting the Jamaica format he then published his most famous work, The London Spy, which surveyed in 18 monthly instalments the seamier side of the London scene, and through which he established his name and style in the literary world. A High-Church Tory, he used his political writings to attack Whigs, Puritans, and Presbyterians; although they also landed him into trouble and, charged with sedition for accusing Queen Anne of not supporting the Tories in Parliament, was condemned to stand in the pillory. As a publican, he kept the King's Head Tavern, an alehouse in Clerkenwell, the Bacchus Tavern, and the British Coffee House, near Gray's Inn.