What wizard ancestor is resurrected in 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'?

The wizard ancestor resurrected in “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” is Joseph Curwen.

Curwen is Charles Dexter Ward’s distant ancestor, identified in the story as his great-great-great-grandfather. He was an eighteenth-century Providence merchant and alleged alchemist whose unnaturally youthful appearance and secret experiments aroused suspicion. Local citizens eventually attacked his hidden laboratory, apparently killing him in 1771.

Centuries later, Ward becomes fascinated by Curwen after discovering family records and clues about his ancestor’s occult activities. He locates Curwen’s remains and uses magical formulae to call him back from his “essential salts”—the story’s fictionalized idea that a person’s vital essence can survive in preserved remains or ashes.

The resurrection does not restore a benevolent family patriarch. Curwen resumes his necromantic experiments, seeks forbidden knowledge, and ultimately murders Ward before assuming his identity. Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett investigates the deception and discovers the connection between the missing young man and the resurrected sorcerer.

The novel was written in 1927 but published posthumously in 1941. Curwen’s resurrection is central to its blend of Gothic family history, alchemy, body horror, and supernatural mystery.