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Probate inventories
Probate inventories are lists of possessions
of deceased persons, drawn up by executors or administrators,
not only for the protection of the deceased, but also for the
calculation of ecclesiastical court fees. Like wills, they belong
to the class of records known as testamentary papers. They exist
for the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and (for the Calderdale
area) form part of the York diocesan archives, housed at the
Borthwick Institute of Historical Research in York. They also
survive occasionally in local collections, scattered amongst
family and estate papers. A few of the inventories are available
in published transcript form.
Format
Before a will was proved, executors were obliged
to have drawn up 'a true and perfect inventory of the goods,
chattels, credits and debts' of the deceased. The documents are
written on either paper or parchment. They are in English, but
the spelling is often phonetic, and obscure dialect words are
often to be found in them.
Use
Although they are largely restricted to the
middle and upper ranks of society, probate inventories are indispensable
for the study of domestic crafts, the history of furniture, clothing,
agriculture, the general standard of living and the rise and
decline of industries. The information obtained from inventories
is not easily gained from other sources and, when these documents
are used in combination, they make it possible to build up a
picture of of the social and economic structure of a given community
for much of the early modern period.
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