RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

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

Redwood Library and Athenaeum

50 Bellevue Avenue
Newport, RI 02840
Tel: (401) 847-0292
Fax: (401) 841-5680


Scope & content

This collection consists of a diary kept by Samuel Ward, Jr., while travelling to Paris from London on December 24, 1792 to represent his client, William Constable (1752-1803), in the sale of land in Albany, New York, to Frenchmen seeking safety in voluntary exile to the United States. Until his return to New York City on August 1, 1793, Ward worked to conclude the transaction, explored the city, and made social calls with his friends, including Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816). He also described the proceedings against King Louis XVI (1754-1793) and the French populace on January 21, 1793, the day of the King's execution. He also recorded his accounts in this diary from December 1792 to September 8, 1794. The section of his accounts also contains copies of letters important to the land sale.

Also found within this collection are two typed transcriptions. The first transcription was completed by Rosalys Haskell Hall and Douglas Penn Stickley in 1989. This transcription is comprised of seventeen pages and includes a typed copy of Ward's diary and his accounts. There is also a presentation letter from Hall to Richard Champlin, Librarian of the Redwood Library, on September 12, 1989.

The second transcription, prepared by Samuel Hough, is comprised of fourteen pages, in which he has "provided identifications for a number of the most significant names which appear in the diary, and [he] re-edit[ed] the transcription according to [his] own reading." In his typed copy, Hough includes biographical notes on Jacques Pierre Brissot, Edmond Charles Edouard Genest, Vicomte Louie Marie de Noailles, and Gouverneur Morris.