William Ware (3 August 1797-19 February 1852), novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born in Hingham to a distinguished Massachusetts family. His father was Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College. Ware graduated from Harvard in 1816, taught for a few years, and was ordained a minister in New York, where he settled in 1821. But ill health (which later was diagnosed as epilepsy) and a distaste for pastoral duties plagued him and he resigned in 1836 to devote his full time to writing. Ware is best known for his historical novels about classical and biblical times: Letters of Lucius M. Piso From Palmyra to His Friend Marcus Civitius at Rome, later titled Zenobia; or, The Fall of Palmyra (1838); Probus: or, Rome in the Third Century (, later called Aurelian (1848); and Julian: or, Scenes in Judea, his most popular work. He also owned and edited the influential Christian Examiner from 1839 to 1844. In later life, Ware lectured, and his series on European capitals was published in 1851 and that on Washington Allston appeared posthumously in 1852. He died in Cambridge.