Mary Ward was born in Carteret County, North Carolina in about 1728. She married her cousin Benjamin Ward and the couple lived together on a plantation in Onslow County, North Carolina. Sometime between 1767 and November 1769, Mary's husband Benjamin died. In November 1769 one of the Ward's enslaved people, Cuff, was charged with poisoning Benjamin Ward and executed for the crime. Mary Ward died sometime after 1769.