Wardwell Family Papers

WARDWELL FAMILY PAPERS, 1799-1841, 1878

Series List

Scope and Content Note

The Wardwell Family Papers document the lives and activities of three members of the Wardwell family of Salem, Massachusetts, including Abiel, and his two sons, Abiel H. and Nathaniel. It contains ships' papers, correspondence, legal papers, poetry, and an account book. It has been arranged into four series. All series have been arranged chronologically.

Series I. Abiel Wardwell (1771-1821) contains ships' papers and letters written during Abiel's career as a ship captain. Of interest is his parole from prison in Nova Scotia.

Series II. Abiel H. Wardwell (1810-1837) contains a book filled with handwritten poems, a letter from Abiel H.'s cousin while he was aboard the Brothers, and letters about the barque Brighton.

Series III. Nathaniel Wardwell (1814-1865) contains two letters to his mother, Esther.

Series IV. Other contains a letter from Samuel Todd requesting genealogical information from his cousins (1878). This was found tucked into Abiel H.'s poetry book.

Biographical Sketches

Abiel Wardwell was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1771, to Solomon and Bethiah (Holt) Wardwell. He was a master mariner and commanded a number of vessels for Salem ship owners and merchants, including the brig Betsey, the ship Astrea, the Eunice, and the Britannia. In 1800 he married Hannah Elledge (1779-1805); they had no children. In 1811 he married Esther Andrews (1777-1861) and they had four children: Abiel H. (1810-1837); Julian (1812-1816); Esther (between 1814-1815-after 1821); and Nathaniel Abiel (1814-1865). He died of consumption in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 30, 1821.

Abiel H. Wardwell was born in 1810, the son of Abiel and Esther Wardwell. He was a mariner like his father and the first officer of the barque Brighton. He died on October 30, 1837, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Nathaniel Wardwell was born on May 9, 1814, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Abiel and Esther Wardwell. He was a shoemaker. In 1843, he married Margaret Todd (1817-1903) and they had two children. He died on July 4, 1865 of a concussion.

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Preferred Citation

Wardwell Family Papers, MH 230, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

Provenance

This material was purchased by the Peabody Museum in 1926.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Tamara Gaydos, September 2016.

Related Material

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ungerleider, Neil. "Genealogy Report: Descendants of William Wardwell." Neil-Ungerleider-MA. Genealogy.com, 31 Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Sept. 2016. <http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/u/n/g/Neil-Ungerleider-MA/GENE3-0010.html

Brighton (Bark) logbook, 1836-1837, Log 1340.

Eunice (Brig) logbook, 1818-1820, Log 137.

Hymns / composed by different authors at the request of the general convention of Universalists of the New England states and others, 1810 (formerly owned by Abiel Wardwell)

The Holy Bible, 1784 (formerly owned by Abiel H. Wardwell)