Understanding probate inventories and household goods

What a probate inventory actually is

A probate inventory is a room-by-room list of a person's movable possessions, drawn up after their death so that the executor or administrator could settle debts and divide the estate. It is not a will, and it is not a list of land or buildings. What it does record, often in startling detail, is everything that could be carried away: beds and bolsters, pewter plates, a copper, a cow, a wheelbarrow, sacks of barley, a set of carpenter's tools.

Inventories survive in large numbers from roughly the 1530s to the 1780s, with the greatest concentration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were usually compiled by two or more neighbours or local tradesmen, who walked through the house valuing what they saw. The court then filed the document. For family historians, they are gold dust, because they put flesh on the bare bones of a burial register entry.

Why they were made, and when they stopped

Church courts, chiefly the consistory and archdeaconry courts, required an inventory as part of the probate process. If the estate was small, the value might fall below the threshold at which an inventory was needed, and poorer ancestors are therefore less likely to appear. From the mid-eighteenth century the practice faded; a simple statement of the total value increasingly replaced the room-by-room list. By the nineteenth century, the detailed inventory had largely gone, replaced by the modern grant of probate with its single figure.

This matters when you are searching. A missing inventory does not mean your ancestor owned nothing; it may simply mean the estate was small, or that the document has not survived. Always check the catalogue for the court that had jurisdiction over the parish, which was not necessarily the nearest one.

How to find one

• Start with the county record office or the national archive catalogue, searching by surname and parish rather than by title alone. Spelling variants are essential: Bayly, Bayley, Bailie may all be your family.
• Look at the original image, not just an index entry. Indexes rarely capture the detail that makes the document valuable.
• Note the date of the inventory and the date of burial. A gap of months is common and does not indicate an error.
• Read the appraisers' names. They were often relatives, neighbours or in-laws, and they can open up a whole network of associates.
• Check the will or administration bond for the same person; the inventory and the will together tell a far fuller story.

Reading the rooms and the objects

Inventories usually proceed room by room: the hall, the parlour, the chamber over the hall, the kitchen, the buttery, the dairy, the barn, the yard. The sequence itself is informative. A house with a hall, a parlour and three chambers was a substantial one; a single-room cottage will list everything under one heading, sometimes just "the house".

Watch for what is not mentioned. Beds appear constantly, often with the phrase "and furniture", meaning the whole assembly of mattress, coverlet and hangings. Bedding was expensive and was frequently bequeathed by name in wills. Brass and pewter vessels, a spit, a posnet, a cauldron and wooden trenchers show how food was cooked and served. Linen in a chest, a looking glass, a few books, a clock: each item hints at comfort, literacy or aspiration.

Look for the words used for cloth and clothing. "Wearing apparel" was often lumped together, but you may find a gown, a cloak, a hat, a pair of boots. These are rare and welcome glimpses of the person who wore them.

Occupation, status and the farming year

For farming ancestors, the inventory is a working portrait. Livestock is counted by type and age: milking cows, bullocks, hogrels, ewes, lambs. Crops appear as "corn in the barn" or "wheat in the ground", which can reveal the season in which the man died and how much of the year's work was still in hand. Implements such as a plough, harrow, waggon, hurdle, scythe or flail confirm a way of life.

Trades are just as legible. A weaver's loom, a shoemaker's lasts and awls, a blacksmith's bellows and anvil, a tailor's shears, a carpenter's bench and planes, a fisherman's nets. If your ancestor was a shopkeeper, you may find a "parcel of goods in the shop" valued as a lump sum, which is tantalising but still tells you he kept stock.

The totals also allow comparison. Two men in the same village, dying within a year of each other, might show very different figures, revealing the local pecking order in a way that no other record does. Be cautious, though: a figure of £40 in 1620 is not comparable to £40 in 1750, and debts owed to and by the estate can substantially change the picture.

Making the most of what you find

Transcribe the inventory fully, keeping the original spelling and the sums in pounds, shillings and pence. Group the items into themes: bedding, cooking, livestock, tools, clothing. Add a short note of context, such as the court, the appraisers and the date of burial. Then set it beside a map or a hearth tax return for the same parish, and the house, the household and the wider community begin to take shape.

Above all, read these documents slowly. They are the closest thing we have to standing in an ancestor's kitchen, counting the spoons.