Research


Scope and Content Note

This series consists predominantly of petitions to the legislature from heirs to estates and estate executors or administrators. The petitions request assistance with a wide variety of probate matters including permission to sell estate assets in order to settle debts owed by estates; assistance in collecting debts owed to estates; contested dispositions of estates, sometimes claiming that the intent of a will had not been carried out by the executors or heirs; confirmation of legal title to land left by decedents; payment to creditors of debts owed by estates; assistance in carrying out the intent of decedents whose wills were invalid or who died intestate; inheritance by heirs of persons whose estates had been confiscated during the Revolution (such as widow's dower right to one-third of her deceased husband's estate); bounty lands or other compensation for families of soldiers killed during the Revolution; and authorization to complete transactions, such as sale or purchase of land, begun by decedents prior to their death.

The series also includes scattered other records such as affidavits in support of petitions; briefs giving legal opinions on cases of contested wills; legislative resolutions concerning relief of indebted estates; correspondence concerning administration of estates; and extracts from or summaries of wills.