The Ward Family Papers include the joiner and chair making account books of Miles Ward (1673/4-1764) and the shipping, business, and legal papers of Miles Ward (1704-1792) and his son Joshua Ward (1752-1825). The remainder of the collection contains personal and business papers for the descendants of Joshua Ward (1699-1779), Miles Ward (1704-1792), John Ward (1707-1787), and Ebenezer Ward (1710-1791). Although the Ward Family Papers extend from 1718 to 1946, the bulk of the papers ranges from 1740 to 1825. The collection has been arranged in six series.

Series I. Miles Ward (1673/4-1764) Account Books contains his accounts and a few receipts for his Salem business as a joiner.

Series II. Miles Ward (1704-1792) Papers, which include his shipping, business, and legal papers, range from 1729 to 1799. Subseries A. Shipping Papers contains the ships' papers for vessels he owned and for those on which he consigned cargo. His ships primarily sailed to the West Indies and coastwise America carrying rum, molasses, grains, and other cargoes. While the ships' papers, arranged alphabetically, include the bills of lading, masters' and merchant house correspondence, ships' orders, crew lists, accounts, and receipts for specific vessels, the miscellaneous shipping papers contain all records for more than one ship or unidentified ships. Outfitting papers contain accounts and receipts for the building and repairing of Miles's ships. See Appendix I for a list of ships owned by Miles along with their masters and port of call.

Miles Ward's daybooks and ledgers comprise the bulk of Subseries B. Business Papers. They contain accounts for cargo, ships' voyages, and his local mercantile business from 1740 to 1789. Also contained in the Business Papers are miscellaneous accounts and receipts for Miles's wharves, warehouses, cargoes, and domestic concerns (1734-1790). His legal papers include deeds for land, wharves, and a pew, accounts of contributions to the salary of Rev. Dudley Leavitt, Miles's 1790 will, and his estate papers.

Series III. Joshua Ward (1752-1825) Papers includes shipping and business papers for Joshua's mercantile and distillery businesses. Joshua's shipping papers, which spans the years 1775 to 1832, includes records for vessels owned by or which carried cargo for Joshua to ports in Europe, the West Indies, Africa, and coastwise America. Ward's ships were involved in such activities as privateering (in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, see Appendix II), fishing voyages, and West Indies and European trade. The Shipping Papers are arranged in three subseries: ships' papers, general shipping papers, and shipping and merchant house correspondence.

Subseries A. Ships' Papers, which is arranged alphabetically, contain ships' orders, crew lists, invoices, bills of lading, accounts of sales, portledge bills, and merchant house and captains' correspondence. Several aspects of this subseries are worthy of note. At least one of Ward's ships was involved with slave trading. Correspondence to the captain of the brig Favorite (Jan. 10, 1787 and July 14, 1787) gives instructions on the purchase and sale of a cargo of slaves. A muster roll pamphlet for the brig Tyrannicide lists crew members returned to England from prize vessels captured by the brig.

Subseries B. General Shipping Papers includes miscellaneous shipping papers, account books, insurance accounts, outfitting papers, and papers of Joshua's business partners. Receipts, accounts, agreements, and correspondence referring to the building, repairing, and outfitting of ships are located in the outfitting papers. The Nathan Ward Papers contain primarily letters and invoices from Nathan to Joshua, which refer to the purchase, sale, and loading of cargo. Correspondence from Nathan continues past the 1787 dissolvement of their firm. Included in these folders (B12, F5-6) are the legal agreement for the establishment of their firm and the lease of their Petersburg, Virginia, store. One folder (B12, F7) contains letters to Nathaniel Appleton and Nathan Frye, partners with Joshua in many shipping ventures.

Subseries C. Shipping and Merchant House Correspondence is filed alphabetically by firm name (see Appendix III) and includes correspondence, accounts, and ship's papers from foreign and American merchants. Correspondence from Ichabod and Nathan Nichols (B15, F1), merchants in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, discusses the loading of cargo and readying of vessels for sail, many of which were privateers. Letters from Joseph Bass (B13, F1), Joshua's brother-in-law, include personal information as well as business. The miscellaneous shipping correspondence includes letters from captains of unidentified vessels and letters from J. B. LaMarque (1795-1796), which describe political events in Europe and America (B16, F7).

Subseries D. Business Papers includes correspondence, distillery receipts, accounts, and legal documents, miscellaneous receipts, account books, and legal documents. Because Joshua's primary business concern was the import and export of West Indian goods and New England rum, most of his business correspondence in some way reflects this pursuit. Correspondence located here may, therefore, pertain to the shipping business, but it does not, however, specifically discuss cargo or ships. Additional letters concern the distillery, the Salem Register, and the Federal Office. The folder of legal documents for the distillery (B17, F7) contains permission to build the distillery and deeds for its sale. Joshua's account books contain accounts for his cargo, ships' voyages, distillery, and domestic concerns. The legal documents include sale of the Salem Register, probate of his will, and an inventory of his estate (B22, F11).

Series IV. Joshua Ward (1776-1849) Family Papers consists of five subseries. Subseries A. Joshua Ward Papers consists of mostly business papers and correspondence, including several deeds for land in Salem and Cambridge, Massachusetts as well as indentures.

Subseries B. Susannah Holyoke Ward Papers consists of 62 almanacs/diaries and personal papers. The almanacs/diaries cover the years 1793-1856 and contain interleaved diary entries along with the yearly almanacs. The entries include notation of visits and personal expenses. The folder of personal papers includes letters written to her husband, Joshua Ward (1776-1840), and her son (Joshua Holyoke) as well as a letter written to her form her daughter, Mehitable War. This subseries also includes Susannah Holyoke Ward's last will from 1853, naming her daughters Mary and Mehitable as beneficiaries and executors.

Subseries C. Elizabeth Holyoke Ward Papers is composed of personal writings as well as copies of essays and papers, Most of these appear to be religious in nature, and the subseries includes loose writings as well as a number of journals. Other papers include a catalog for a sale to benefit the New England Asylum for the Blind as well as Elizabeth's obituary.

Subseries D. Mehitable Ward Papers consists only of correspondence to and from Mehitable Ward. Mehitable wrote letters to Susannah Holyoke Ward and Elizabeth Holyoke Ward and received letters from them. She also received letters from Elizabeth Holyoke Hedge and "Aunt Peggy"." Many of these letters were originally found interleaved in a sketchbook belonging to a Mary E. Nichols. The sketchbook is no located in the Nichols Family of Danvers, Massachusetts Papers (MSS 431).

Subseries E. Joshua Holyoke Ward Papers includes a number of folders containing correspondence. One folder contains correspondence from friends as well as letters written from Joshua Holyoke Ward to his mother and sisters, written while at school. The letters to his mother describe Ward's trip to New York, and contain descriptions of lower Manhattan and Saratoga Springs. The judicial and Business Correspondence consists of letters pertaining to cases Joshua Holyoke Ward was trying while Judge of the Court of Common Pleas from 1835-1848. Manu of these letters regard schedule adjustments, which were quite frequent because of Ward's poor health. Of note in the correspondence is a handwritten notice of William Henry Harrison's death signed by then-Secretary of State Daniel Webster.

The legal papers of Joshua Holyoke Ward include opinions and notes written on cases, as well as correspondence he acquired as agent for the heirs of Silence Eliot. The folders of general papers include forms and reports from Ward's days at Harvard College, as well as a program from his commencement ceremony in 1829. It also includes Joshua's appointment as Justice of the Peace, a genealogical letter from a relative, accounts of his estate, correspondence and agreements concerning land owned by the family in Brimfield, Massachusetts. This subseries also contains essays and manuscripts written by Ward while he attended Harvard College.

Series V. Ward Relatives' Papers is divided into four subseries. Included in the papers of Subseries A. Joshua Ward (1699-1779) and Heirs are shipping papers for Joshua (1699-1779), shipping and personal papers for his son Richard (1741-1824), and personal correspondence for his great-grandchildren George Atkinson Ward (1793-1865) and Sophia Langdon Ward (1855- ). Joshua Ward's (1699-1779) shipping papers (B22, F12) contain ship's papers for the schooner Beaver. These include bills of lading, portledge bills, invoices, accounts, and receipts. The papers of Joshua's son, Richard (1741-1824), primarily contain letters written by Richard while master of the brig Louisa from 1809 to 1810 and account books for his mercantile business from 1780 to 1784. George Atkinson Ward's (1793-1865) papers (B23, F1) include a personal historical memorandum book that contains such entries as past minister's ordinations, orations by local officials and ministers, and notations of historical events. Contained in the Sophia Langdon Ward (1855- ) Papers (B23, F2) are her 1869 letters to her friend Charlotte Nichols that discuss Sophia's adolescent concerns and infatuations.

Subseries B. Heirs of Miles Ward (1704-1792) contains documents of Miles's heirs by his first wife: his grandson Nathan (d. circa 1792), great-grandchildren Frederick Townsend Ward (1831-1862) and Elizabeth Colburn Ward (1839- ), and Miles' heirs by his second wife: his son Nathaniel (1746-1768), grandson Joshua (1776-1840) and his wife, Susanna (Holyoke) Ward, and their children Mary Holyoke Ward (1800- ), Elizabeth Holyoke Ward (1804-1851), and Joshua Holyoke Ward (1808-1848).

The Nathan Ward (d. circa 1792) Papers (B27, F10) contain his business and personal correspondence. Of note is the June 17, 1779 letter from John Rowe to Nathan and other Salem merchants describing the effects of the Revolution upon Salem trade, and the May 21, 1785 letter from his uncle Goodale informing Nathan of the deaths of Mrs. Safford and Nathan's brother Miles. Additional business papers from Nathan's partnership with his uncle Joshua Ward (1752-1825) are located in Box 12, Folders 5-6. Among the Frederick Townsend Ward (1831-1862) Papers (B23, F4) are a printed description of his death in China and several photographs.

The Susanna (Holyoke) Ward and Mary Holyoke Ward almanac/diaries contain their interleaved diary entries along with the yearly almanacs. The entries include notations of visits and personal expenses. The Joshua Holyoke Ward (1808-1848) Papers include Joshua's 1842 appointment as Justice of the Peace, a genealogical letter from a relative, accounts of his estate, and correspondence he acquired as agent for the heirs of Silence Eliot (B25, F4-5).

Subseries C. Heirs of John Ward (1707-1787) contains the papers of Andrew Abbot Ward (1828- ), an heir of John Ward (1707-1787). Of note are the 1875 Salem High School printed exercises for various subjects (B25, F6).

Subseries D. Heirs of Ebenezer Ward (1710-1791) include shipping correspondence for Ebenezer Jr. (1738-1773), deeds, business papers, and estate papers for his son, Miles (1744-1796), correspondence to Miles Ward (1805-1848) and Joseph Chipman Ward (bp. 1773-1832), and Chipman Ward (1813-1861) correspondence. Also included here are the Miles Ward (1805-1848) diaries describing his life and study before entering Harvard College (V. 58-59).

Series VI. Genealogy and Additional Papers contains note and correspondence on genealogy, Ward family crest tracings, and miscellaneous Ward and non-Ward papers. This series has been divided into two subseries.