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Early American Probate Inventories

The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife
Annual Proceedings
July 11 and 12, 1987

CONTENTS

SECTION I: USING PROBATE INVENTORIES

Introduction: Unlocking the Semantic and Quantitative Doors
Peter Benes and Jane Montague Benes

Matching Inventory Terms and Period Furnishings
Robert F. Trent

The Meaning of Absence: Household Inventories in Surry County, Virginia, 1690–1715
Anna L. Hawley

Using Tax Lists to Detect Biases in Probate Inventories
Kevin M. Sweeney

SECTION II: INVENTORY-BASED STUDIES OF LITERACY, CLOTHING, INHERITANCE PATTERNS, AND OCCUPATIONS

Literacy and Reading in Eighteenth-Century Westborough, Massachusetts
Ross W. Beales, Jr.

Dress in Seventeenth-Century Cambridge, Massachusetts: An Inventory-Based Reconstruction
Patricia Trautman

Women’s Property and Family Continuity in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut
Barbara McLean Ward

Rhode Island Handloom Weavers: A Probate Perspective
Gail Fowler Mohanty

SECTION III: INVENTORY-BASED STUDIES OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DOMESTIC LIFE

First-Period Architecture in Maine and New Hampshire: The Evidence of Probate Inventories
Richard M. Candee

Delaware’s Orphans Court Valuations and the Reconstitution of Historic Landscapes, 1785–1830
Bernard L. Herman

Sleeping Arrangements in Early Massachusetts: The Newbury Household of Henry Lunt, Hatter
Peter Benes

SECTION IV: ECONOMIC HISTORY

The Distribution of Consumer Goods in Colonial New England: A Subregional Approach
Gloria L. Main

SECTION V: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES

Bibliography of Inventory-Based Studies
Lecture Program, 11 and 12 July 1987
Abstracts of Conference Papers Not Appearing in This Volume
Acknowledgments
Photo and Illustration Credits
Notes on Contributors