Monday, August 6, 2012

Amanuensis Monday - Petition for Administration of Estate of Edward Hildreth (1831-1899)

Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme many months ago called Amanuensis Monday. 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."

The document this week is the petition for administration of the estate of my second great-grandfather, Edward Hildreth (1831-1899), who died 26 April 1899 in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts:



Edward Hildreth died leaving a wife, Sophia (Newton) Hildreth, and a daughter, Hattie Louise (Hildreth) Seaver, my great-grandmother.

The transcription of the document above is (handwritten portions in italics, blanks underlined):

To the Honorable the Judge of the Probate Court in and for the County of Worcester:

RESPECTFULLY represents Sophia Hildreth
of Leominster, in the County of Worcester,
 that Edward Hildreth
who last dwelt in Leominster in the County of Worcester,
the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety- nine intestate, possessed of goods 
an d estate remaining to be administered,
leaving as widow -husband h is only heirs at law and next of kin, the persons whose names, residences and relationship to the deceased are as follows, viz."

NAME ................................ RESIDENCE .................................RELATIONSHIP

Sophia Hildreth .................... Leominster, Mass. .......................... Widow
Hattie L. Seaver ................... Leominster, Mass. .......................... Daughter

that your petitioner is widow of the said Edward Hildreth.

Wherefore your petitioner prays that s he or some other suitable person be appointed
administrat rix of the estate of said deceased, and certified that the statements herein contained are
true to the best of h er knowledge and belief.

Dated this eighteenth day of October, A.D. 189 9.
................................................................. Sophia Hildreth

WORCESTER, SS.  Subscribed and sworn to this Eighteenth day of
October, A.D. 189 9.
Before me, .............. Franklin Freeman, Justice of the Peace.

The undersigned, being all the persons interested, residign in the Commonwealth, who are of full
age and legal capacity, hereby assent to the foregoing petition.
................................................................ Hattie L. Seaver

This is a  really neat document for me because it has the only signatures that I have of two of my ancestors - my great-grandmother, Hattie L. (Hildreth) Seaver, and my second great-grandmother, Sophia (Newton) Hildreth.

This is an Original Source record, a photocopy of which was obtained at the Probate Court office in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1991.  It was in Worcester County Probate Packet No. B-25,255.

There were two other papers in the Probate Packet, but I did not obtain a copy of them:

*  24 October 1899: Administratrix bond of $3,000 posted by Sophia Hildreth
*  24 October 1899:  Administration of estate to Sophia Hildreth

The URL for this post is:  
http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/amanuensis-monday-petition-for.html 

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

babu21 said...

Nice documentation and very useful to me. Thanks to provide this article.
But I want to know the detail about the documentation image.
thanks,
History