Life:
It is not clear who is the Samuel Ward who knew Whistler in the early 1880s. One (remote) possibility is Samuel Ward (1814-1884), lobbyist, financier author and adventurer whose Lyrical Recreations, originally published in New York and Boston in 1865 was published in London in 1883. He had taken part in the Gold Rush, was with the banking firm Prime, Ward and King, and visited Latin America on behalf of US corporate and government interests before settling in Washington to lobby on behalf of financiers.
Bibliography:
Kelly's London Post office Directory, London, 1861 and 1862; Carvel Collins (ed.), Sam Ward in the Gold Rush, Stanford, 1949.