... It was at "Morrisania," the old Morris place in Westchester, that my father met my mother for the first time. She was Sarah Hartley Ward, the daughter of Colonel John Ward, of Carolina, and was making the Morrises a visit with her sister Mary, who also met her future husband, Gouverneur Morris Wilkins, on this occasion. I have heard that the coming of the Misses Ward from Charleston to New York was something of an event in the restricted society of that time, and doubtless many young men were interested in the advent of these heiresses. ...
... As I told you in the last chapter, Gouverneur Morris Wilkins's first wife was my mother's elder sister, Mary Somersall Ward; his second wife was Catherine Van Rensselaer. ...
... These negroes had formerly belonged to Colonel Ward, who had left four hundred slaves to my Aunt Mary, Mrs. Gouverneur Wilkins, ...
