Inventories

Inventories

The Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury Inventory Papers Index: for 1660, 1661, 1681, 1689, 1690 and 1699.
Inventories are fascinating documents listing the belongings of a deceased person and submitted during the process of probate.   They can give a lot of information about the contents of a house, the tools of an occupation and the status of an ancestor.   Here is an example of part of an inventory.

The Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury Inventory Papers are held at the Centre For Kentish Studies and date from 1559 to 1842.   They were common until early in the 17th Century.   The papers have been filmed by the LDS Church and are available through local Family History Centres.   There are calendars (lists in chronological order) of all inventories available on fiche from the Kent FHS.

A useful book is 'A Glossary of Household, Farming and Trade Terms from Probate Inventories' by Rosemary Milward, published by the Derbyshire Record Society, ISBN 0 9505940 1 6.

This index includes surname, forename, place, description (where available) and folio number.   At present it covers only a few years.   There are approximately 200 inventories per year.

  1. 1660   (PRC 11/17)
  2. 1661   (PRC 11/18)
  3. 1681   (PRC 11/45)
  4. 1689   (PRC 11/53)
  5. 1690   (PRC 11/54)
  6. 1699   (PRC 11/61)
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Inventories
Created by Maureen Rawson