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Monday, March 1, 2010

Amanuensis Monday - Inventory of Robert Seaver (1702-1752) Estate

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started his own Monday blog theme several months ago called Amanuensis Monday. I loved the idea, and recently decided to follow it in order to share ancestral information and keep the theme going, and perhaps it will expand to other genealogy bloggers.

What does "amanuensis" mean? John offers this definition:

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

I am enthralled (and sometimes perplexed) by the estate property inventories prepared as part of the probate process. Some are very short (written on one sheet of paper), and some are extensive (taking several pages to list each piece of property). One that is relatively short, but instructive, is that of Robert Seaver (1702-1752), my 6th great-grandfather.

Robert Sever, bricklayer of Narragansett No. 2 (now the town of Westminster, west of Fitchburg in Massachusetts), died in early 1752 intestate (Worcester County Probate Records, Packet 52,920, accessed at Worcester County Courthouse in 1991). Robert's wife, Eunice (Rayment) Seaver was appointed administratrix. An inventory was taken by Oliver Wilder, David Hoar and Joseph Miller on 26 September 1752. The inventory included (listed in pounds:shillings:pence format):

The Real Estate ............................................................................. 66:13:04

To Personal Estate:
To one note of Hand 8/ & to apparel 24/........................................... 1:12:00
To bedding and furniture 40/ To 2 chests one old Corboard 8/ ........ 2:08:00
To five old chairs one old Table 5/ To one spining wheel 6/ ............... 0:11:00
To one Tubb one nail, one Pigon 5/1 ..................................................... 5:01
To pewter and wooden Platts ............................................................... 8:08
To Two Iron Potts one frying pan ......................................................... 4:06
To old axes one shavy two stone hammers ........................................... 13:05
To Two Trowells 3/ to old books and shoes 4/4 ..................................... 7:04
to one Staple and Ring and two Cart Boxes one Chain ........................... 9:04
To one narrow hoe and old iron ............................................................ 1:08
To one plow & five plow irons ............................................................. 16:00
To Knives and forks and Razor ............................................................. 1:02
To Bible and other books 12/6 ............................................................ 12:06
To one Saddle one pitch fork two Rakes ............................................... 14:11
To Shovell 2/ To one yoke of oxen L8:13:4 ........................................ 8:15:04
To Two Cows L6 To one Horse L6:5/ .............................................. 12:05:00
To Two Calves 20/ To Hay L2:13:4 ................................................... 3:13:04
To Two Shoah 12/ To 4 thousand of brick 42/8 ................................ 2:14:08
To Bettle Ring 1/8 To 1750 feet of boards 35/ .................................... 1:16:08
To Seven Cherry Tree Boards and Logg ................................................. 3:00
To three thousand of Shingles .......................................................... 1:04:00
======================================================
Entire estate: ................................................................................ 106:13:06

The debts apparently exceeded the value of the personal effects that could be sold, so Eunice sold the property to pay off the residual debts. The 60 acres of land in Lot 70 were sold in two lots to Luke Brown of Worcester for 20 pounds and to Ezra Taylor on 7 April 1755 for a total of 54 pounds, 8 shillings, 10 pence (Worcester County Deeds 36.270, 36.281, accessed on LDS Microfilm 0,843,173). Eunice Seaver's account was allowed on 21 August 1755.

[Due to the formatting limitations of Blogger (I cannot use tables for some reason in Old Blogger), I tried to make the numbers in the list above line up. I did my best! The originals did not have the periods I've inserted to make the numbers line up. I could have "whited out" the periods but that was too much work.]

This family had a father, a mother, and at least seven children living at home when Robert Seaver died. They had bare bones "old" furniture - and look at the values. The sum of the furniture total was less than three pounds; The kitchen stuff was worth about one pound; the tools were worth less than two pounds. The family had some books and an old Bible (what I would give for that!!! Was Robert was literate?). The farm animals were worth about 23 pounds; the brick, wood and shingles were worth about 6 pounds total.

Was this family rich, middle class or poor? They did own real property, but that had to be sold in order to pay the debts, which are not listed. Were the farm animals raised to be sold off or eaten? Perhaps both - the cows gave milk, the oxen and horse worked the land, but the shoahs (pigs) and perhaps the calves may have been raised for food supply.

2 comments:

  1. Using EH.net and the puchasing power of the British pound, 100-13-6 in 1752 has the same purchasing power today of £155,725.78. So, since the pound is about $1.50 in today's exchange rate, I would say that estate was worth roughly $225,000.00. They were firmly middle class.

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  2. With all the bricks, boards and shingles, looks like he was getting ready to build a new house.

    Did his administrator have to sell all of his land to pay for the dwelling materials? If so, what a sad irony.

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