The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
Analysis of Selected Probate Inventories


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This section of the Plymouth Colony Archive presents a collection of searchable texts concerning probate inventories for selected individuals who were members of the colony. Please browse the texts and analyses by topic, or run a search on a specific subject or person of interest.
Our thanks to Catherine Gates for her past work in transcribing a number of the probate inventories presented here, and to Mary Ellin D'Agostino for converting those inventories to an electronic text format.

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Contents of a Typical Plymouth Colony House
Based on Probate Inventories

After the death of a person, their will and a "probate inventory" of their possessions had to be taken and approved by the Governor and Assistants at the next Court after their death, provided it was not in the same month that they died. Letters of administration would then be granted to the executor so that the estate could settled. If someone did not make a will, they died intestate, and after an inventory of their possessions had been taken, the Court gave legal authority to someone, usually the wife, husband or close relative, through letters of administration, to settle the estate (Plymouth Colony Records Vol. 11: 195). A collection of such probate inventories is provided below.
We also provide an Index of Wills & Inventories, 1670-1685. Copies of such Plymouth Colony wills and probate inventories from 1670 onwards that have not been published on our website may be requested in writing from the Plymouth County Commissioner's Office, 11 South Russell Street, Plymouth, MA 02360. The current cost is $.50 a sheet.


Selected Probates 1633-1672

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Will Wright, 1633
Mary Ring, 1633
Godbert and Zarah Godbertson, 1633
Thomas Pryor, 1639
Nathaniel Tilden, 1641
William Kemp, 1641
James Lindale, 1652
William Hedges, 1654
Myles Standish, 1656/57
Joseph Pecke, 1663
Capt. Thomas Southworth, 1669
George Hall, 1669/1670
Alice Bradford, 1670/1671
Nathaniel Goodspeed, 1670
William Macomber, 1670
Joseph Tilden, 1670
Capt. William Hedge, 1670
Abraham Martin, 1670
Henry Howland, 1670/1671
William Lumpkin, 1670/1671
Edward Hall, 1670/71
Thomas Gilbert, 1671
John Barnes, 1671
William Evance, 1670
William Zoanes, 1671
John Sutton, 1672
Ester Woodfield, 1672
Thomas Walley, 1672
Joseph Biddle, 1672

Selected Probates 1673-1675

John Howland, 1672/1673
Thomas Prence, 1673
John Wood alia Attwood, 1673
Katheren Fallowell, 1673
Nicholas Davis, 1673
Roger Annadowne, 1673
Nathaniel Bacon, 1673
Thomas Phillips, 1673
Isacke Wells, 1673
Richard Beare, 1673
John Gray, 1673
James and Dorothy Brown, 1673/1674
Thomas Whitney, 1673/1674
Martha Knott, 1673/1674
Richard Taylor, 1674
John Dicksey, 1674
Joseph Ramsden, 1674
Thomas Willett, 1674
Samuel Sturgis, 1674
Aron Knapp, 1674
Joseph Coleman, 1674
John Perren, 1674
Josiah Winslow, 1674
John Hallett, 1674/1675
Joseph Carpenter, 1675
William Blackstone, 1675
Richard Bowin, 1675
Edward Cobb, 1675
Gershom Cobb, 1675
Jacob Cooke, 1675

Selected Probates 1676-1682

Robert Bartlett, 1675/1676
Thomas Savory, 1675/1676
John Palmer, 1675/1676
John Gorum, 1675/1676
Jonas Austin, 1676
John Knowles, 1676
Jonathan Wood/Atwood, 1676
Samuell Russell, 1676
John Mayo, 1676
John Read, 1676
Nehemiah Sabine, 1676
Samuell Fuller, June 1676
Zoeth Howland, 1676
John Wright, 1676
Eliezer Clapp, 1676
Benjamin Buckland, 1676
William Blackmore, 1676
Samuell Fuller, August 1676
Nathaniel Peck, 1676
John Fuller, 1676
Peter Hunt, Jr., 1676
Samuel Palmer, 1676
Margaret Carpenter, 1676
Nathaniel Brewster, 1676
James Bursell, 1676
William Ford, Sr., 1676
Timothy Williamson, 1676
Isacke Chettenden, 1676
John Damon, 1676
Sampson Mason, 1676
Jonathan Winslow, 1676
John Cole, 1676
Thomas Howes, 1676
Judah Thacher, 1676/1677
James Redway, 1676/1677
John Knowles, 1676
Thomas Hunt, 1676/1677
Moses Symons, 1676/1677
Edward Bobbet, Sr., 1676/1677
Nicholas Snow, Sr., 1676/1677
Jacob Ormsbey, 1677
John Tisdall, 1677
Robert Bears, 1677
Nathaniel Cooper, 1677
Allis and Israell Deane, 1677
James Barnabey, 1677
Joseph Rogers, 1677/1678
Daniel Dunham, 1677/1678
Henry Smith, 1677/1678
Thomas Walley, 1677/1678
William Serjeant, 1682

Selected Probates 1683-1687

William Spooner, 1683
Christopher Winter, 1683
Margaret Howland, 1683/1684
Martha Nelson, 1683/1684
Nicholas Wade, 1683/1684
Daniel Coomes, 1683/1684
Andrew Hallett, 1684
Thomas Clapp, 1684
James Rudway, 1684
Peter Collamer, 1684
John Millard, Jr., 1684
John Jenkins, 1684
William Parker, 1684
Samuel Parker, Sr., 1684
Samuel Butterworth, 1684
Gyles Rickard, Sr., 1684
John Rouse, Sr., 1684/1685
John Bourne, 1684/1685
Henry Samson, 1684/1685
John Bartlett, 1684/1685
Joseph Trevant, 1685
Morris Trevant, 1685
Epharim Tincome, Sr., 1685
Thomas Hatch, 1686
John Alden, 1687


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