Inventories of estates show name of decedent and township, date filed, itemized list of possessions and assets, appraised valuation, and signatures and affidavit of appraisers and administrators. Administrators' Accounts and Administrators' Bonds are also filed with this collection prior to 1776. Other estate related papers sometimes included before 1776 were: Orphans' Court papers, Renunciations, and Vendue Lists. Inventories were sometimes filed with the wills and may be at the courthouse. Appraisers often included widow's allotments in the inventories. Any additional information such as occupation, cause of death, or the listing of enslaved persons or indentured servants are noted in the database.
Prior to 1752, documents between the months of January and March were subject to double dating, as a result of the conflict between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Therefore, documents filed between 1 January and 25 March have two years listed; one from the old Julian calendar and one from the new Gregorian calendar.
System of Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within each letter.
The English works of Sir Henry Spelman, Kt. publish'd in his life-time : together with his posthumous works, relating to the laws and antiquities of England, first publish'd by the present Lord Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1695 : together with the life of the author
now revised by His Lordship ; to which are added, two more treatises of Sir Henry Spelman, never before printed, one, of the admiral-jurisdiction and the officers thereof, the other of antient deeds and charters ; with a compleat index to the whole.
A general abridgment of the common law, alphabetically digested under proper titles: with notes and references to the whole. With three tables. The first, of the several titles. The second, of the names of the cases. And the third, of the matter under general heads
