Author and reformer, Julia (Ward) Howe was descended, on both sides of her family, from illustrious American ancestors. Her maternal grandmother, Sarah (Mitchell) Cutler, was a niece of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the Revolution. The first American Ward (John) settled in Newport, R.I. in the 1660s; his son, Richard, became the Royal Governor of Rhode Island, and his son, the first Samuel, became the Revolutionary Governor and one of the framers of the Constitution.
An additional JWH collection (A-24), which provides more information about JWH, her family, and her activities, is also included in the Schlesinger Library/University Publications of America project. See also Notable American Women, 1607-1950 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), Deborah Clifford, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, (Boston: Little Brown, 1979), and numerous other published sources.
Draft family trees for the Cutler, Ward, and Howe families were prepared by the processor and are available in the Schlesinger Library correspondence file: McRory, Margaret H.
From the guide to the Papers, 1787?-1944, c.1984, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
