Records include financial agreements with Boston merchants, contracts with carpenters to build stores on Broad St. and Doane's Wharf, promissory notes, receipts, property deeds, shares of the ship Eliza Ann, powers of attorney, insurance policies, tax bills, and papers related to an 1819 lawsuit against John by the estate of Shubael Bell. Some papers are related to John's business as a merchant in the company Grew and Burditt, including bills of trade from Havana. The bulk of documents are from 1821, most likely collected in the settlement of John's estate. Also included are some business and financial papers of George Wakefield of Dedham, whose relationship to Grew is unclear.

Oversize material includes a commission agreement with merchants Mary Grew and Son; property deeds between John Grew, his mother, Mary Grew, and Grew and Burditt; John Grew's power of attorney, and numerous insurance policies for Boston buildings.

Estate papers include bills and receipts for farming, wagons, medical care, beer, advertisements, and funeral expenses; correspondence and accounts with John's business partner Burditt; an estate inventory and appraisal; proceeds from estate sales; some expenses of John's children before guardians were officially appointed; rental agreements for his house on Purchase St. and store on Broad St. in Boston; an August 1822 estate settlement; and tax and accessors' accounts. Also included is an April 1823 settlement of the estate of Elizabeth Grew, John's sister. After 1823, many bills and receipts are related to rentals and repairs of property held by the estate.

John's brother, Henry Grew of Philadelphia, and brother-in-law, Henry Wainwright of Boston kept accounts as executors of John's will and trustees of his estate, and as guardians of John's children, John, Henry, Charles, Anna, Edward, and Sarah. Guardianship accounts and receipts include medical bills, room and board, clothing, tuition, dancing lessons, and yearly summary accounts for each minor child. Records document the guardians' efforts to send Charles Grew to sea, his expenses, his misadventures in Valparaiso in 1826 and New Orleans in 1831, and his death at sea in 1831. Papers also document John's marriage to Rebecca Wainwright in Jan. 1835 and his death in Dec. 1835, as well as Anna's marriage to James Church Alvord in May 1837. Account books list John's estate inventory, accounts of the trusts of his minor children, children's expenses, income from investments, rental accounts, and copies of annual trustee accounts.

Henry's business correspondence largely dates from the 1850s and 1860s, after he had retired from active business in the mercantile trade. It includes correspondence with Charles H. Ladd, Henry's agent in Portsmouth, N.H., as well as his business partners Frederick Perkins and E.R. Doe. Also included is correspondence with merchant houses H. P. Sturgis and Co. in China, A.A. Low and Co. in New York, and others discussing textile purchases and deliveries. Other letters discuss Henry's purchase and sale of stock, personal financial investments, rental property management, business related to family trusts, legal disputes related to debt collection, the sale of livestock and crops, primarily rhubarb, from his farm in Hyde Park, land purchases in Dorchester, and the education of his son Edward at the Boston school of E. S. Dixwell.

Some correspondence documents Henry's charitable acts and donations, including letters from indigent families he helped to support, and letters from F.R. Woodward of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. Other letters are related to Henry's membership in the Norfolk Agricultural Society. Several deeds, mortgages, and indentures are also included in this subseries, as well as the specifications of a barn built in Dorchester in October 1856.

For additional correspondence, see also Series IV.C. Dry-goods business records, 1830-1864.

The series includes receipts for payments to trusts, groceries, building supplies and labor, farm equipment and supplies, farm labor, clothing, tailors' bills, property taxes, charitable donations, utilities, furnishings, books, newspaper subscriptions, and other daily expenses. The bulk of receipts are from Boston and the surrounding area.

Account books record income and expenses beginning in the 1830s, including accounts related to the estate of Henry's father, John Grew; income from Chace and Grew; rental income and expenses; costs of books, sundries, and other expenses; insurance payments; and accounts with various family members.

Records in this series pertain to Henry Grew's business as a dry-goods merchant and importer with Caleb Chace as Chace and Grew, with Frederick Perkins as Grew and Perkins, and as Perkins, Doe, and Co. All companies were located at 79 Milk St. in Boston. Records include accounts and receipts for building materials, repairs, and office supplies; business correspondence; property deeds; promissory notes; legal papers related to lawsuits for debt collection; and records related to lumber merchants purchasing timber land, including a large amount of correspondence from agent Frederick Hobbs of Bangor, Maine.

Miscellaneous business records are related to Henry's dry-goods business, but cannot be linked to a particular company. They include several books of textile records, including a volume listing textile manufacturing companies, their locations, and various textiles they produce. An account book lists business purchases, including cloth, saltpeter, goat skins, cow hides, hemp, and linseed. Of particular interest is a handwritten volume of notes about companies or merchants primarily located in New England and New York in the mid-1840s, including remarks on the size, type of business, property value, history of the firm, and character of its owners. The volume contains an index of the businesses.