Diary of Samuel Ward, Jr., with transcriptions (RLC.Ms.034)

Biographical note

Samuel Ward, Jr. (1756-1832) was born in Westerly, Rhode Island to Anne Ray (d. 1770) and Samuel Ward (1725-1776), colonial governor of R.I. and Continental Congress delegate. Ward graduated from Brown University in 1771 and was commissioned as a captain in the Kings and Kent County militia in 1775. He was eventually promoted to a major in 1777 and then to lieutenant colonel in 1779 in Rhode Island's First Regiment (the "R.I. Black Regiment"). He served in the Battle of Red Bank (1777) and the Battle of Rhode Island (1778) during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Following his retirement from the Army in 1781, Ward went into business as a merchant in both East Greenwich, R.I., and New York, New York. He was sent as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1786 and later to the Hartford Convention in 1814-1815.

On March 8, 1778, Samuel Ward, Jr. married Phebe Greene (1760-1828), daughter of R.I. Governor William Greene (1731-1809) and Catharine Ray Greene. The couple had ten children: William Greene (1779-1798), Samuel (1781-1785), Henry (1782-1783), Henry (1784-1838), Samuel (1786-1839), Anne Catherine (1788-1837), Phebe (1791-1825), Richard Ray (1795-1873), John (1797-1866), and William Greene (1802-1848). Samuel Ward, Jr. died on August 16, 1836 in New York.