Research tools - Richard L Farner and Barbara A Farner, Guntson Hall Plantation, Probate Inventory Database, Software Program

 - categorising the wealth of ancestors, how to determine their status in colonial society

Qualified appraisers assigned a value to items owned at the time of the deceased's death; status is determined by the extent of items required to service a dinner party of ten or more people; knives and forks, the more gentile items provide an indication of status and possibly wealth.

I was particularly interested in applying the Gunston Hall Plantation methodology to Sarah Miers, wife of first Aaron Williams, son of Reynear, Kent, Delaware, and second Nehemiah Draper, a wealthy merchant of Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex Delaware. She was a wife, mother, yeowoman and maintained a book of debtors and creditors. No books, it seems, filled the shelves of the bookcase in Sarah Miers home. No jewellry is listed nor clothes. Jewellry and clothing are two of the items I was interested in seeing, mainly to compare it with the jewellry and clothing Naomi Wiltbank devised in her will made 22 September 1770.

Naomi Wiltbank of Sussex on Delaware, widow being sick and weak in body ... "to Naomi Shankland dau. of John decd one mare called Jewel her and her increase, also four large silver table spoons and six silver teaspoons and silver [looks like t] trainer and silver milk pot and gold necklace and one small corner cupboard and two suits of calico curtains one suit of silk that is to say one gourd and peticoat that is now at Edward Wright's, one velvet cloak, two gold rings, one silver snuff box and tea chest."

Sarah Miers was a slave owner.

Inventory of the goods & chattels of Sarah Draper late of Sussex county decd laid before the subscribers by Elizabeth Draper 10 May 1774

78/3/9 [household]
1 chest draws 40/; 1 do. (chest draws) 30; 3/10/0
1 large chest 7/6; 1 pine do. (large chest) 12/6; 1/0/0
1 dressing table & old trunk; 0/10/0
1 old Oval table; 0/5/0
3 beads and furniture with curtains; 22/10/0
1 bed and some furniture without curtains; 4/10/0
2 pr old hand irons 15/ 1 old clock 60/; 3/15/0
1 book case 80/ 1 large walnut table 30/; 5/10/0
1 old tea table 8/ 1 square pine table 5/; 0/13/0
2 winsor chairs 15/ 6 old leather bottom chairs 15/; 1/10/0
3 flag bottom chairs some old chair frames; 0/6/0
2 linen wheels 20/ 1 wolling do. (wheel) 5/; 1/5/0
1 looking glass 17/6 1 corner cupboard 20/; 1/17/6 = 47/2/0
1 point silver cann about 14oz; 2/5/0
1 half point silver cann about 6oz; 2/5/0
1 silver cream pot about 5 1/2 oz 2/1/3
4 silver spoons about 9oz; 3/7/6
6 old silver spoons about 11oz; 4/2/6
8 old silver teaspoons & pepper box 6oz; 2/5/0
1 pair old silver teagonge; 0/18/0
6 handled chainy cups & saucers; 0/12/6
6 chainey cups & saucers blue & white; 0/6/0
tea pots cups & saucers; 0/6/0
glassware 6/ quano ware 12/6; 0/18/6
tinn war & 2pr old candle snuffers; 0/5/0
thread wool & yarn 2/45 flax & toe thread 28/3; 3/13/3
toe 9/6 9 yds find linin at 2/9 24/9; 1/14/3
4 yds home spun cloth 12/ 2yds linin 5/6; 0/17/6
1 large table cloth 17/6 2 small tablecoths 8/6; 1/6/0
6 napkins 12/ 2 napkins 2/ 2pr old scales and some waits 10/; 1/4/0
2 brass candle sticks; 0/2/6 subtotal 31/1/9 total p1 78/3/9
brought over 78/3/9
1 tinn kettle 1/6 1 small brass dettle 2/6; 0/4/0
1 copper coffee poot 5/ 2 flat irons 5/; 0/10/0
1 old box iron and heeters; 0/5/0
1 pewter tankard; 0/5/0
38 * pewter at 1/6 25 1/2 * pewter at 1/; 4/2/6
1 pewter bason; 0/3/9
1 iron tea kettle 8/ 2 0ld copper kettle 5/; 0/13/0
1 old warming pan iron pestle & morter; 0/2/6
2 hackles 10/ 2prs wool cards 3/; 0/13/0
1 stone garr (jar) & earthen ware; 0/7/6
5 old Linen wheels 7/6 1 old grid iron & gridle 4/; 0/11/6
4 Augors 6/ sundry old casks & cooper ware 20/; 1/6/0
2 pr old tonges & shovels & 1 old per scales; 0/4/6
4 * collen 6/1 p^ old melarde 10/; 0/16/0
1 old loom warping box *ay* & Gears; 1/0/0
1/2 dox knives and forks 3/2 2 pot trammels 12/; 0/15/0
2 pots 81* a 3d 20/3 1 duch (dutch oven 12/; 1/12/3; subtotal 13/11/6
1 grind stone 6/4 harrow ax 12/; 0/18/0
1 broad ax 3/ 3 how 3/ 2 ox chains 10/; 0/;16/0
1 plow bolt and clivao 6/; 0/6/0
1 pair iron trace collers and hames & *; 0/12/6
1 ox cart 25/ 1 harrow 5/ 1 spade 2/6; 1/12/6
Sundry shoop tools and old iron & *; 6/0/3
1 parcel of very sorrey soal leathers; 0/7/6
Sundry old * and old hand irons; 0/8/0
1 old watch 60/ 1 bolling cloth 80/; 7/0/0
1 African-American man named Tom; 40/0/0
1 African-American man named Isaac; 55/0/0
1 African-American boy named Moses Lame; 25/0/0
1 African-American boy named Isaac; 37/10/0
1 African-American boy named Phillip; 35/0/0
1 African-American boy named Tom; 30/0/0
1 African-American boy named Antony; 25/0/0
1 young African-American man named Tom; 75/0/0 subtotal 340/10/6
total page 2 432/5/9
1 African-American woman named Sall; 35/0/0
1 young African-American woman named Grace & child; 60/0/0
1 African-American girl Jude Lame; 30/0/0
1 African-American girl Esther; 35/0/0
1 African-American girl Jamer; 30/0/0
1 African-American girl Gene; 18/0/0
1 yoke of oxen 8/ 2 young mares 5/10; 13/10/0
1 old mare 3/ 2 cows and calves 6/; 9/0/0
2 cows and yearlings 6/ 1 small heffer 3 years old 15/; 6/15/0
1 two year old shear yearling; 1/7/6
1 small 3 year old bull; 1/10/0
1 old cow and yearling; 2/15/0
1 sow and seven pigs 20/ 1 do. (sow) 3 pigs 17/6; 1/17/6
1 barrow 20/ 1 do. (barrow) 17/6 1 do. (barrow) 10/; 2/7/6
4 shoats 2/ 1 large bay horse 9 years old 15/; 16/4/0
375 bushells corn a 2/2; 40/12/6
3 * top fodder; 0/18/0
Wheat and rye * d on; 15/0/0
497 * bacon at 4/12; 9/6/4 1/2
31 * beef 10/4 4 old sheep and 1 lamb 37/6; 2/7/10
1 old riding cheer; 3/0/0
Cash in the house at the death of SD; 32/0/0
subtotal 366/11/2
total 798/16/1/2
the amount of bonds and some book debts received; 486/2/
John Draper Thomas Evans [Appraisers]

Not insubstantial for a wife, mother and woman of the 1700s. Status assessed - middling working-middle-class. More interesting is what was withheld from Sarah Mier's inventory?