Widowhood in Plymouth Colony:

An Enquiry into Family Dynamics through Probate Material

Erika VanHorne
HSTRY 491
March 16, 2015

VanHorne 1
An archaic term now out of use, relict refers in colonial probate sources to a
widow. From the Latin relictus, meaning to abandon or relinquish, this term encapsulates
the attitude of tragic normalcy with which widows were perceived in colonial society.1
The probate records of Plymouth colony reveal how a widows myriad relationships to
her husband, children, and community shaped her social, economic, and material
circumstances. Analyzing how marital and filial relationships manifested after the death
of a husband displays the ways in which widows participated in the estate process itself,
how this process empowered some widows while enforcing paternalistic relationships for
others, and how these processes shaped a widows relationship to her children. Indeed,
we can observe the fundamental unit of Plymouths Puritan society the family through
the experiences of widows.
To carry out my analysis, I will use probate records2 wills, associated inventories, and
intestacy proceedings to analyze the material conditions and familial relationships that
widows faced in Plymouth Colony. With their perceived importance, legal records can
often avoid the oblivion that awaits other, more ephemeral, products of a life lived. Yet
probate records have many limitations that the historian of colonial America must
recognize. Only about one-fifth of estates in Plymouth were probated,3 yielding a small
sample that some historians assert prevents generalization. Kenneth Lockridge warned
historians against extrapolating societal conditions from probate documents, saying that,
the researcher into probate documents would do best to confine himself to a discussion
1 Associated definitions include, the widow of a man, the surviving partner (male or
female) of a person, that which is left behind or rejected. Oxford English Dictionary
Online, Third Edition, updated 2009, s.v. relict, n.
2 Probate is the legal process of proving a will. Oxford English Dictionary Online, Third
Edition, updated 2007, s.v. probate, n.
3 Plymouth Colony Research Group, Plymouth Colony Probate Guide, (Warwick RI:
Plymouth Colony Research Group),vii.

VanHorne 2
of long-term changes within the peculiar minority of men who left wills and for whom
inventories were recorded. And even in this case he must be cautious.4 As my analysis
concerns widows, I must heed Lockridges warning doubly: not only were wills produced
by a small portion of Plymouths population, they also reflect the socioeconomic status of
women from the perspective of their husbands.
Many scholars like Lockridge contend that during the colonial period, a small, wealthy
minority of the population utilized the probate system. However, I found that probate
records were distributed evenly between different wealth classes in Plymouth and as a
result, the conclusions I draw are, for the most part, applicable across socioeconomic
boundaries.5 In an attempt to use documentary archaeology methodology to mine
probate records for wealth distribution patterns, Gloria L. Main and Peter H. Lindert
compiled records from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire into a database.6
This dataset utilizes several variables to approximate individual wealth - such as: money,
debts receivable, capital, real estate, consumer goods, debts payable, occupation, and net
wealth. In this dataset, there are only 21 female observations of which 20 are widows. I
utilized this data set, with its sophisticated statistical methods like currency deflators and
easy interface with the programming language R, to compare women who left behind
probate records to all decedents who left probate records in Plymouth. This analysis,

4 Quoted in Marley R. Brown III, The Behavioral Context of Probate Inventories: an

Example from Plymouth Colony, in Documentary Archaeology in the New World, ed.
Mary C. Beaudry, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 79.
5 Table 1.1, Chart 1.2, and Chart 1.3 in the Appendix illustrate that the 21 women in the
dataset are evenly distributed across wealth classes. Wealth classes are defined by Main
and Lindert and thus do not directly correspond with contemporary socioeconomic
categories.
6 University of Michigans Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
database of Colonial New England Probates, 1631-1776.

VanHorne 3
alongside my discussion of widows within the context of their husbands wills, elucidates
the economic conditions of independent women in Plymouth.
Probate records are often the only extant documents that relate the material experiences
of seventeenth-century women. Literacy in New England was not widespread among
women until the decades immediately preceding the Revolution.7 In a survey of
seventeenth-century New England wills, only one-third of women signed their names, a
rate which remained roughly constant for about a century.8 This lack of widespread
literacy ensures the importance of probate records in any analysis of the experience of
Plymouth women. These probate records leave an unparalleled opportunity and challenge
for the historian to glimpse the agency of women as they moved through challenging
transitions in their lives.
Plymouth is an ideal place to carry out my analysis of the relationship between widows
and Puritan testamentary processes for a few reasons. Due to the Old Colonys privileged
place in the American narrative, genealogists have spent a considerable amount of effort
indexing and maintaining the probate records of Plymouth.9 Throughout its existence,
Plymouth maintained Puritan cultural homogeneity and remained rural. According to
John Demos, this slow, steady, and unspectacular development makes Plymouth an

7 Gloria L. Main, An Inquiry Into When and Why Women Learned to Write in Colonial
New England, Journal of Social History 24, no. 3, (1991): 579.
8 Ibid., 580.
9 Notably, the Plymouth Colony Research Group has produced a probate guide and an
index. These works delineate the places where one can find specific records for
individuals. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, with its genealogical
interests, has made Plymouth probate records available scanned online and in microfilm,
see https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/89113?availability=Family%20History
%20Library. See Plymouth Colony Research Group, Plymouth Colony Probate Guide,
ix.

VanHorne 4
especially good laboratory for the study of early American life.10 Under well-known
circumstances, settlers arrived in the area in 1620. In 1685, testamentary jurisdiction was
assumed by Edmund Andros during his governorship of the Dominion of New England,
and in 1691 Plymouth was absorbed into Massachusetts Bay Colony.11 A static analysis is
well-suited for Plymouth, due to its short existence and separation of records from the
Bay Colony. Initially, there were no lawyers in Plymouth Colony and as a result, the
probate system exhibited diversity in form and practice.12 As laws were created and
interpreted in this flexible context of minimal codification, estate arrangements provide
an opportunity to approximate diaphanous societal values, like the esteem with which
women were held in marital relationships. While I intend to create a relatively static
portrait of the legal system of Plymouth, it is important to recognize that my conclusions
do not easily transfer to other regions due to the diversity of legal systems among
colonies.13 This static portrait of the legal system allows for its few changes to be thrown
into sharp relief. In this paper, I find that over the course of the seventeenth century, the
few modifications of Plymouths probate system truncated the legal independence of
widows.
Estate provision took on a larger religious and even eschatological significance for many
testators as many wills were written during times of sickness or exigency. In her 1656
will, Mis Elizabeth Poole relates that her primary reason for creating a will was to sett
my house in order according to the Direction and message of the Lord unto hezekiah
10 John Demos, The Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1970), 3.
11 Thomas E. Atkinson, The Development of the Massachusetts Probate System,
Michigan Law Review 42, no.3 (1943), 431.
12 Ibid., 427
13Marylynn Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, (Chapel Hill,
NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 3.

VanHorne 5
when hee was sicke.14 Poole is referring to a biblical episode recounted in 2 Kings 20
and Isaiah 38, in which Hezekiah is commanded by God to Put your house in order,
because you are going to die; you will not recover. Hezekiahs piety and compliance
earns him 15 more years of life an act of grace that Poole implicitly hopes to receive.15
Many wills from Plymouth, including Will Wrights 1634 will, bequeath the body and
soul in language that mirrors the distribution of material goods,
Inpr therefore I give & bequeath my body to the dust, & my sowle into the hands
of God that gave it. being pswaded in my selfe that although my body shall be
laid in the earth there to returne to dust from whence it came, yet at the last day
when all flesh shall appeare before the tribunall bar of Gods justice that then my
sowle & body shall receive recompence of reward.16
Wright seamlessly transitions from this delineation of his eschatological beliefs to the
distribution of his real estate showing the inextricable centrality of Puritan theology to
Plymouth patterns of estate allocation.
Widowhood is an important proxy for any analysis of the status of women especially in
societies where women existed in situations of what Alexander Keyssar dubs enforced
dependency. Influenced by the behavioral sciences, Keyssar characterized widowhood
as a social problem which strained social institutions like the family and property in
eighteenth-century Woburn, Massachusetts.17 Yet to avoid anachronism, widows have to
14 C.H. Simmons Jr., ed., Plymouth Colony Records v.1 and v.2 Wills and Inventories
1633-1669, (Camden,ME: Picton Press, 1996), 299. Note that I use Simmons page
numbers, not those directly on the records.
15 2 Kings 20, Isaiah 38 (New International Version).
16 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 45.
17 Alexander Keyssar, Widowhood in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts: A Problem in
the History of the Family, in Perspectives in American History 8, ed. Donald Fleming
and Bernard Bailyn (Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard
University, 1974), 83.

VanHorne 6
be analyzed from a vantage point that does not excessively problematize the condition.
Analyzing widows within the sociologically specific framework of a social problem
does just that. Although I disagree with Keyssar on the appropriate perspective from
which to observe the phenomena of widowhood, I find his concept of enforced
dependency a useful term that I will return to throughout this paper. Indeed, Marylynn
Salmon utilizes the concept of dependency to enforce the concept that during the colonial
period most women were dependent on male family members. Salmon argues that this
concept was a guiding principle of colonial jurisprudence, By making women more
dependent on husbands and children, lawmakers hoped, in fact, to strengthen the
family.18 John Demos, the preeminent historian of the family in Plymouth Colony,
analyzes widowhood within the broader context of marriage and old age which I find to
be the most appropriate in this context.19 This perspective, centered on familial roles and
stages of life, allows Demos the flexibility to consider widowhood on contemporary,
relational terms. Yet by nature, widowhood is a disruption in family structure and lived
experience, warranting analysis as a discrete social stage. Indeed, widowhood is
significant because it marked a transition in a womans status under the law. Under
English common law, only femme sole - single women over the age of majority20 and
widows had the legal standing to own and pass down property. The common law term for
this status was femme couvert, or covered woman - in the words of the eighteenthcentury jurist William Blackstone, The very being or legal existence of the woman is
18 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 13.
19 See table 4.1 and charts 4.2 and 4.3 for a discussion of age among decedents.
20 Age of majority varied during this period, ultimately resting on the testators wishes.
Usually, women reached the age of majority at age 15 or 16, while men reached the age
of majority at age 21, highlighting a gendered difference in marital eligibility tied to age.
The youngest age I observed was 15, see Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 217.

VanHorne 7
suspended during the marriage.21 Widowhood was thus a transition out of dependency to
legal and financial independence with all of its potential and exigencies.
For my analysis, it is important to determine to what degree testators22 chose to adhere to
common law prescriptions and patterns of estate allocation. In colonial America, widows
were ensured one-third of their decedent husbands estate regardless of the provisions
willed by the decedent in, recognition of her role in contributing to his prosperity,
whether by the property she had brought to the marriage or by the labor she performed in
his household.23 This custom was generally observed in Plymouth, although it was not
codified until 1671.24 Although practice often diverged from common law prescriptions,
formal law can provide valuable insights into customary behavior in the management of
marital property.25 Indeed, a husband often left a widow more than her dower. A widow
also had the right to renounce the will for her thirds.26 However, if a widow chose to
renounce her husbands will, her dower share of the estate would be selected first from
her goods. In some wills, a widow was bequeathed goods as petty as her weareing
apparel both linnen and wollen illustrating that during marriage, a husband owned all
of his wifes possessions, even her clothing.27

21 Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, Society in
Connecticut 1639-1789, (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press,
1995), 19-20.
22 Testator is a term that refers to the individual leaving a will. Oxford English
Dictionary Online, s.v. testator.
23 Lois Green Carr and Lorena S. Walsh, The Planters Wife: The Experience of White
Women in Seventeenth-Century Maryland, The William and Mary Quarterly 34 no. 4
(1977): 561.
24 Atkinson, The Development of the Massachusetts Probate System, 429-430.
25 Ibid., xiii.
26 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America,141.
27 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 81. Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in
Early America, 143.

VanHorne 8
Blackstone indicated that the primary rationale for dower was, for the sustenance of the
wife, and the nurture and education of the younger children.28 Thus, a widows thirds
of her intestate husbands real estate was only for use during her lifetime that is, she
could not alienate or unsuitably dispose of the property, and upon her death, the real
estate would be divided among the heirs named in her husbands will.29 Strict laws
against the waste30 of land by widows developed in the colonies a means of ensuring
that the widow did not reduce the value of the land before it passed to the named heirs.31
Granting the widow land for her unrestricted disposal was uncommon enough to merit
some community skepticism in the event that it did occur. In Thomas Gannatts 1655
will, he grants his wife my whole and proper estate houses lands Cattle moveable
goods. In 1669, his witnesses to the will affirmed upon oath that said Thomas Gannett
Gannett Did give to his wife Sarah his Lands to be att her Dispose as the other Movable
goods.32 This addendum indicates that Sarah Gannett had likely attempted to sell some
or all of the land that her husband left her a sale that was unusual enough to merit
community suspicion. In strong contrast to the limitations placed on the use of real estate
by widows, widows could usually dispose of their share of the decedents moveable
property as they wished. This division between life and absolute interest in property was
foremost a recognition of the widows immediate material needs - yet it also reflects a
consistent and gendered dichotomy between interior goods and real estate. This
28 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 142.
29 Charles Henry Pope, ed., The Plymouth Scrap Book: the Oldest Original Documents
Extant in Plymouth Archives, (Boston: C.E. Goodspeed & Company, 1918), 216, 217.
30 Waste broadly signified damage by the widow to the value of the property, which
could be as varied as cutting down trees, opening mines, and neglecting the upkeep of
buildings and fences. Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 143,
175-176.
31 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 175-176.
32 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 285.

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dichotomy would also manifest itself in myriad other ways including the division of
estates among sons and daughters and the ways entrepreneurial widows supported
themselves.
Inventories, the catalogued appraisal of the property of the decedent, were a vital part of
the probate process and subsequent estate allocation. First, the General Court would issue
a warrant for appraisers to create an inventory of the decedents estate. The appraisers
were either family friends, kin, or uninterested parties appointed by the court. The
completed inventory would be presented at the Court of Assistants, at which an appraiser
would have to give their oath to the truth of the inventory. The final step in the inventory
process was for the widow, or other executor named in the will, to swear to the truth of
the inventory.33 This oath tacitly acknowledged the widows understanding of her
husbands estate and affairs. Indeed, a widow could challenge an inventory before taking
her oath as Mistress Barnes, widow of the comparatively wealthy John Barnes, did in
1671. Although John Barnes estate was valued at over 226, Mistress Barnes challenged
the appraisal of the estate, noting the omission of 7 in money and a few implements.34
Not all widows were as intimately acquainted with their husbands affairs as Mistress
Barnes was. When William Lumkins estate was appraised in January of 1670, his widow
expressed her ignorance of her husbands affairs, perhaps to avoid further scrutiny. As the
secretary noted, as for Deetes [debts] that ar owing to this estate or that are to be payd
ffrom it Mrs Lumkin knows very littell Difference: and they are not much ether of them so
ffar as she knowes.35 Asserting ignorance was not the only way to avoid breaking ones
oath to the inventory. Elizabeth Wade, the relict of Nicholas Wade, qualified her oath in
33 Brown, The Behavioral Context of Probate Inventories, 80.
34 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 108.
35 Ibid., 94.

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June 1684 by asserting, it is a true Inventary of all the estate of her late husband
deceased as far as she knows and that if afterward there do come more to light she will
make descovry of it.36 This legal proactivity of Elizabeth Wade signifies her relative
comfort with the probate process, including her knowledge of complicated legal concepts
like discovery. As her husband was relatively wealthy with an estate of 120 19s.,
including 8 s. worth of books (not noted as a Bible), she was more likely to be literate.
The various ways in which widows responded to this formulaic legal procedure can
reveal both a widows legal savvy and familiarity with her husbands estate.
Once a widow swore to an inventory, it served as the basis for which an executor divided
a decedents property making the accurate inventory of vast importance to property
allocation. Yet the inventories themselves were far from standardized. Although
inventories usually catalogued the moveable property of a decedent, they occasionally
also noted the value of real estate holdings.37 There was also seemingly no consensus on
the inclusion of a widows dower in the final inventory, a phenomenon that material
historian Marley L. Brown III speculates could be due to a widows own
rearrangement, or intentional concealment of goods to increase her share of the estate.38
There was ample opportunity for a widow to exploit the inventory process, as there are
indications that inventories proceeded with the direct supervision and assistance of the
widow. For example, the oath of widow Mary Lapham reveals that, she Did shew all her
estate to the within prisers.39 Before giving her oath to the inventory of her husband, the
unnamed widow of Richard Mann remembered a few more trifles which were all
36 Ibid., 32.
37 Atkinson, The Development of the Massachusetts Probate System, 428.
38 Brown, The Behavioral Context of Probate Inventories, 82.
39 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 205.

VanHorne 11
formally to bee showed to the 2 prissers but not willingly. One prisser was noticeably
exasperated by her antics, as the record notes that he hath engaged to save the court
from any Damage that may come to it by the adminnestration graunted to the wife of
Richard Mann Deceased upon his abovesaid estate.40 Widows thus were highly involved
in the inventory process with some even manipulating the opportunity for their own
gain.
After an estate was appraised and catalogued in an inventory, the executor had the
paramount task of estate distribution, usually to be completed within a month.41 Thus, the
office of executor/administrator was vested with considerable responsibility to the
estates heirs, the decedent, and to the colony itself. Many bonds of administration
survive after they first appeared in Plymouth in 1643;42 although formulaic, they firmly
establish a financial liability on the executor to adequately administer the estate. In a
bond of administration, the executors would acknowledge our selves to bee bound and
fiermly oblidged unto the Govr and Court of New Plymouth for an amount of money
often worth as much as the estate. This sum operated as collateral for the adequate
administration of the estate, for the payment of which well and truly to be made wee
bind our selves our heires executors and Adminestrators Joyntly and severally feirmly by
these presnts.43 Thus, this bond operated as a debt for which the administrator and their
heirs would be liable. I could locate only one instance of administrators shirking duties.
Hugh Cole, Nathaniel and Samuel Bacon who Refusing to stand exequitors of their
fathers will, were ordered by the Court to Adminester on the said estate and stand
40 Ibid., 297.
41 Brown,The Behavioral Context of Probate Inventories, 80.
42 Atkinson, The Development of the Massachusetts Probate System, 428.
43 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 54.

VanHorne 12
bound to give in a true account unto the Court of theire said Adminestration.44 The
record does not note whether the complaint was one of negligence or of malfeasance
but displays the seriousness with which legal institutions treated the office of executor
regardless.
Typically, a widow would be named an administrator thus exercising a form of
authority over her husbands estate that was significant in its own right. Cornelia Dayton,
a pioneering scholar of colonial jurisprudence and its relationship to women, asserts that
a womans married life was in one sense a preparation for widowhood: spouses knew
that most women outlived their husbands and that it was wise policy for women to be
kept informed of the state of the households indebtedness.45 At the critical juncture of
widowhood, women were thus plunged immediately into the world of mens
reckonings.46 However, bonds of administration were often jointly administered by the
widow and her eldest son the two individuals who had the most at stake in the probate
process. This joint executorship was practical in situations where the widow had attained
old age or possessed some malady. After Thomas Ensigne appoints his wife as executrix
in his 1664 will, he entreats his son to Joyne[s] with her, in Respecting [sic] her
weaknes and Inabilitie.47 There were also some instances in which a widow was not
named administrator, even jointly showing her husbands reluctance, even after death,
to entrust his wife with his property.
In many wills, overseers or supervisors were named in addition to administrators. In
1648, the court directed that another person might act with the executrix in the
44 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 471.
45 Dayton, Women Before the Bar, 76.
46 Ibid., 76
47 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 410.

VanHorne 13
supervision of the estate or the good of the children,48 and were usually male friends of
the testator or upstanding community members. In 1647, Alexander Winchester appointed
three of his trusty and welbeloved frinds as supervisors, to have power upon
complaint made by any of my children unto them to Remove them and thayer portions
with them49 As in Winchesters will, the office of supervisor was initially intended as a
safeguard for the childrens portions of the estate. However, the office of supervisor
evolved over time to encompass a very different set of duties. Immediately after Samuell
Newman, a teacher in Rehoboth, appointed his Deare wife Sibbell Newman as his sole
executrix in 1661, he exhorted three distinguished community members to bee my
overseers; to give theire advise to my Destressed widdow, as alsoe theire best healp as her
needs may call for it50 Newman thus thought of the office of supervisor as a position of
male counsel and assistance. James Lindale similarly appointed his wife as sole executrix
in 1652, adding I also Doe earnestly Desire and Request my trusty and welbeloved frind
and naighbour Constant Southworth to bee superviser of his my last will and Testament
Desiring that my said supervizor wilbee pleassed to be healpfull to my wife herein
Lindale continues on to give 1 10s. to his supervisor as a token of thanfulness.51 The
office of supervisor was thus enough of a burden to merit compensation even if the
supervisor was a welbeloved frind. Like Newman, Lindale recognized that the role of
supervisor was one of general assistance and shows an anxiety to secure support for a
widow through legal means. Perhaps the importance of the office of supervisor reflected
the New World reality of truncated kinship networks, as the same language that Newman
48 Atkinson, The Development of the Massachusetts Probate System, 428.
49 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 155.
50 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 389.
51 Ibid., 230.

VanHorne 14
and Lindale use to refer to supervisors is sometimes used in other wills in reference to
male family members. For example, in John Ffobes 1662 will, he Desireth his brother
Experince Michell of Duxburrow to bee what help hee could be to his wife and Children
after his Decease52 The office of supervisor was thus analogous to the traditional duties
of male kin a situation that is reflected in the high incidence of male kin that served in
the office.
Sons and daughters subject to vastly different expectations received very different
portions of an estate upon their fathers death. Male children were granted portions of
their fathers real estate with the eldest often receiving a double share, a tradition with
Biblical antecedents.53 Daughters usually received movable property like livestock,
household goods, or cash. The arrangements for this cash disposal varied and was
oftentimes contingent on the daughters age or marital status.54 In some instances, the
sons (or other executors) were responsible for paying the daughters their share when they
reached the age of majority or married.55 Disbursing the estate in this manner provided
the daughters with an attractive and easily transportable dower. Some decedents chose to
distribute their estate in equal portions, regardless of the birth order or gender of their
heirs. In 1644, after the childless John Atwood granted his loveing wyfe Anne all of his
sizeable net estate of 124, 14s., he granted his siblings children small sums,
ffor my brethren God hath blessed them that they be aswell to give to me to me
as I to them and for their children they be many I do here give and bequeath them

52 Ibid., 382.
53 For examples, see Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 216, 217. Atkinson, The
Development of the Massachusetts Probate System, 430.
54 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 216.
55 Ibid,, 217.

VanHorne 15
greate and smale yeong and old male and female which were borne before the
date of these presents twelve pence apiece if demaunded.56
However, this equitable distribution may be due to the fact that the children were
Atwoods nieces and nephews thereby meriting less filial responsibility. In Edward
Fosters 1643 will, he gave one-third of his real estate to his widow (for her use forever),
one-third to his son, and one-third to his Infant yet unborne whether it be male or
female.57 This provision is unusual among the records. Although daughters received
property that was often worth far less than the property that sons received, they were
usually comparatively free of legal and financial burdens to the estate that male children
would have bourne.
Although sons tended to receive the lions share of their fathers estate, some daughters
received large land tracts and even served as estate executor. In 1667, widower John
Williams granted his married daughter Mary Dodson all of my land to her and her
heires for ever, house, goods, livestock, bonds and debts. To his two sons, Williams
bequeathed a measly five and ten pounds, respectively. Indeed, Dodson is also appointed
sole executrix of her fathers estate. Perhaps Williams was embroiled in a dispute with his
sons or favored his daughter Mary whatever the case, Williams chose to entrust his
daughter with the family wealth, eschewing common gendered patterns of property
allocation. This extreme example illustrates that patterns of estate allocation in the
colonial period were far from absolute and in this case, to a daughters benefit.
A testator could ensure the sustenance of his wife by creating an obligation among
male kin to ensure his widows material well-being. A few wills exist that were hastily
56 Ibid., 99.
57 Ibid., 127.

VanHorne 16
drawn up before a testator went off to war,58 and others were nuncupative (verbal wills,
often drawn up when the decedent was stricken with a fatal illness).59 These wills, due to
time pressures, often invested the widow with a larger amount of authority over the
estate. Michael Pierces 1675 will, created before he went out to Warr against the
Indeans, granted his beloved wiff the westward end of his dwelling, his bed, and onehalf of his household goods for her use during her liff. His eldest son Benjamin was
granted the other parts of the house, barn, land, and moveable estate yet the will also
stipulated that Benjamin was to provide for his mothers Comfortable maintenance by
paying her twelve pounds a year in money, firewood, and provisions. Indeed, Keyssar
encountered similar living arrangements in his study of the social problem of
widowhood. He found that it was common for the heirs and executors to be required to
furnish the widow with provisions, because of her assumed inability to work a farm by
herself a situation that he asserts is characteristic of enforced dependency. Unlike
Keyssar, Demos interprets these clauses not as enforced dependency but as a
decedents desire to meet the needs of his widow through filial obligation. Demos
surmises that many of these situations were a product of an elderly testators nagging
fear of being ignored or abandoned by those who should be closest to them.60 For
example, because Michael Pierces widow was visited with lameness or sikness soe that
they abovsayd twelve pounds p yeare be not sufisiant to maintaine her in a Comfortable
maner, the decedents two sons were responsible for ensuring the widows comfort
with funds from their own estates.61 Indeed, because sons were almost invariably
58 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 128-129.
59 Ibid., 130.
60 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 103, 177-178.
61 Ibid., 128-129.

VanHorne 17
executors of their fathers estates, failing to carry out their duties to the estate would
amount to a forfeiture of their bond of administration a severe financial penalty that
could be worth as much as the entire estate.62 These situations of enforced dependency
illustrate the way in which kinship networks, bolstered by legal obligations, ensured a
widows survival while limiting her independence.
The obligation of male children to maintain a widows material comfort underscores the
importance of Puritan values like filial piety and obedience within a family dynamic.
Demos notes the limited space of seventeenth-century homes, conjecturing that these
conditions necessitated a domestic smooth kind of operational equilibrium; [in which]
basic disruptions and discontinuities must be avoided at all costs. What this probably
meant in practice was a strong unconscious restraint on the expression of hostile impulses
against the members of ones own household.63 This premium on equilibrium was
often manifested in a wills prescriptions for a widows material care and the obedient
carriage of her children. In Thomas Hickes 1653 will, he required his sons to cohabit
peacefully with his widow after his death,
I give it [lands and dwelling house] my two sonnes Daniell and Samuell upon this
proviso that they bee Obeidient unto theire mother and carrye themselves as they
ought soe as they may live comfortably together but if the one or both live
otherwise then they ought and undewtyfully and unquietly with theire Mother that
they cannot comfortably live together then hee that soe carryeth himself shall
Disinherrit himself of his pte of this land During my wives life.64

62 Ibid., 106-107.
63 Demos, A Little Commonwealth, 50.
64 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 249.

VanHorne 18
This exhortation is an indication that many individuals like Hicke viewed filial piety as
paramount even when the parent in question was female. Demos included Hickes will
in his monograph, noting that, Questions of inheritance were more closely intertwined
with discipline in that period than is generally the case now.65 Indeed, testators often
precisely enumerated of the relationship between parties named in the will to maintain
tranquility even if said parties were outside of the family.
A testamentary phenomenon well documented with incredulity by many historians of
colonial probate systems is the attention given to the movement of named parties in and
around property. Indeed, this attention that many wills pay to issues like the movement of
widows around and on property illustrates the tension between those who had a lifetime
and absolute interest in a testators real estate. Keyssar addresses this scrupulous
reservation of the most minute rights by asserting that the testators ability to circumvent
awkward problems of domestic travel and divide his property in such a way is an
attempt to express his own desires and address directly the concrete problem of
widowhood.66 This explicit enumeration may instead reflect a desire of the testator to
maintain tranquility in the event that multiple heirs shared space. In 1659, William
Carpenter granted his house and land to John Titus (it is unclear if Carpenter and Titus are
related). Carpenter grants his wife two rooms in the house and the libertie to Come to
the fier to Doe her occations, careful also to reserve her right to pass through a swamp
that was willed to Titus.67 The specificity with which Carpenter reserved his wifes ability
to use the fire, a central feature in any colonial home, is an indication that his widow
would live in an atmosphere of limited independence.
65 Demos, A Little Commonwealth, 103.
66 Keyssar, Widowhood in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts, 104.
67 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 358-359.

VanHorne 19
This distinction between those who had a life and absolute interest in a decedents
property could cause confusion when or if the property was disposed of during the term
of widowhood. John Deane takes care to resolve this issue in his 1660 will, stating that
my overseers with the Consent of my wife shall incase heer bee noe settled
minnestrey in Taunton; they shall have full power to sell either the whole or pte of
these my housings nad land soe as my Children and posteritie may Remove
elsewhere where they may enjoy God in his ordinances 68
Although he entrusts his overseers with the disposal of his property, Deane ensures the
full consent of his wife over her relocation. This stipulation also shows the anxiety of this
patriarch to maintain the godliness of his widow and offspring a duty that the widow
was charged with maintaining.
When a widow was granted the sole executorship of an estate, her husband certainly
recognized her knowledge of his affairs. Will Wright crafted an unusually eloquent will in
the ninth yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles (1634), which reflected an
interpretation of marital affairs as a partnership, fulfilling the basic need of man for
companionship. After he bequeath my body to the dust, & my sole into the hands of God
that gave it, Wright intones,
whereas God of his great mercy & goodness hath made me ptaker of that great
favor affourded to man in the beginning I meane in calling me to the estate of
marriage & hath given me a faithfull & loving wife wch hath lived wth me to this
prnt time to our mutuall joy & comfort.69

68 Ibid., 496.
69 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 45-46. For a discussion of the theological
significance of Wrights will, see page 5.

VanHorne 20
The tenderness of this language is not lost on the modern reader. Wright continues on to
designate his widow Prisilla as his full and sole executrix - and grants her the entirety
of his estate, to dispose of as she wishes during her life and to her heirs. Although Wright
granted only paltry sums to other individuals (an ewe to the Church of Plymouth, a suit of
clothing to a friend, 5 shillings to a brother for his assistance), he phrased this distribution
in the form of a request for his wife to depose the items.70 Thus, Wrights will reflects his
interpretation of marriage as a holy and symmetric partnership through both language and
property allocation. In the event that an estate was granted to a widow in its entirety, one
can infer a reliance on the widows expertise often due to economic exigency. In the
1658 nuncupative will of Thomas Dimacke after he had taken sicke, he told two
witnesses, that little that God had given him hee would leave to his wife for they were
her Children as well as his.71 Dimacke, among other poor individuals, thus recognized
the wisdom in keeping a small estate together for the widow to dispose of at her
discretion.
Although most decedents left estate arrangements that retained some level of material
independence for the widow, some arrangements could not be categorized as anything but
paternalistic. One such example is the arrangement specified by William Palmers 1637
will. The testator had several children and grandchildren from a previous marriage and
so his much younger second wife had significantly restricted rights to his estate. Palmer
did not entrust his younger wife with the executorship or even refer to her by name,
instead entreating two of his friends, Next of all whereas I have marryed a yeong
weoman who is deare unto me I desire them to deale well wth her. The testator went as
70 Ibid., 47.
71 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 355.

VanHorne 21
far as to require his wife to live with her father if she wanted to receive her portion of the
estate. The witnesses recalled, It was the will of the Testator that his wyfe should bee
ruled by her auncient mr Edward Winslow in her marriage if she looke to ptake in any pt
of this estate otherwise not.72 This paternalistic requirement for the widow to be ruled
by male family members in order to receive more than her dower illustrates the
asymmetric power dynamic present in some marriages in Plymouth. Indeed, some of
Palmers qualms about providing his widow with a residence could be due to his desire to
liquidate all of his real estate holdings, and the fact that his wife had not yet produced any
heirs. Without any children, the widow was thus free of the primary duty of childrearing
placed on widows by Plymouth society.
As it was uncommon for single women to gain economic self-sufficiency during this
period, what modern readers may construe as paternalism is instead the testators desire
to adequately provide for his wifes security. This protective impulse behind estate
allocation is tenderly illustrated in William Bassetts 1667 nuncupative will. Basset
regretted the fact that he, being very weake and sicke and having spoken to his wife and
said wife I must leave you thee but I shall leave thee with the Lord; if God had
lengthened out my life It might have bine that thou mightiest have bine more
Comfortably provided for 73 This duty of the patriarch to provide for his widows
comfort appears to have been expected both by Plymouth society and religion.
A husband could exercise control over estate allocation in another key way by granting
his wife property only for the duration of her widowhood. I could not find an instance of
this happening before 1649.74 The midcentury advent of this pattern, a generation after
72 Ibid., 63-64.
73 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 445.
74 Ibid., 175.

VanHorne 22
initial settlement, is consistent with the assertion by scholars like Cornelia Hughes
Dayton that colonial women lost legal rights as the seventeenth-century wore on, due to
Anglicization and the coalescing of the legal fraternity.75 Indeed, as daily life in the Old
Colony became less fraught with the exigencies of mere survival, we can assume that
responsibilities were devolved away from the widow and to a network of male family
members. The 1652 will of Henery Adams typifies the pattern this prescription would
usually take. When Adams bequeaths his land to his wife Mary, he specifies that,
my will is that my wife shall have hold use occupie and enjoy the said land for
the tearme of her life soe that shee Remayne a widdow from and after my
Decease and soe keep my name on her selfe but if by marriage or Decease my
said name on her be put away 76
Adams goes on to specify that his two daughters shall split the property evenly on the
event of Marys death or remarriage. In this passage, the emphasis on family name is
telling, given that Adams daughters can freely pass on the land to their heirs who do
not have Adams name. He goes on to say that in the event of his wifes remarriage, she
can enjoy her thirds as is the custom of New England.77 This phrase is an indication
that Adams understood common law testamentary procedure, even noting the widespread
traction of thirds as a custom." Although this widowhood duration clause can be
interpreted as a penalty, remarriage was indeed an expected transition for many widows.
In Robert Linells 1662 will, he bequeaths his wife his house only for the term of her
widowhood. However, he goes on to give a certain John Davis two oxen in exchange for
find[ing] my wife wood and to mow my marsh and plow my ground for her for two
75 Dayton, Women Before the Bar, 5, 11.
76 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 239.
77 Ibid., 240.

VanHorne 23
yeare if shee Remaine a widdow so longe.78 As Linnell left behind only a modest estate
(55 4s. 6d.) and a son presumably too young to even collect firewood for his mother, he
must have assumed his wife would need to remarry with alacrity.
Before a widow remarried, again assuming the status of femme couvert, she would need
to ensure the estate rights of her children through legal means if her deceased husband
did not address the quandary through a widowhood duration clause. In one extraordinary
record, the widow Mary Hedges binds Peter Pitts Incase I make him my husband to
pforme the Conditions of this my Deed. Pitts was thus obligated to mayntaine these
my two Children and disburse her Estate left mee by my husband to her sons at the
age of majority.79 This level of responsibility placed by a woman on a suitor is certainly
striking. Indeed, her sons signed the margins of the page noting their disbursal of their
portion by their father meaning that Pitts and Hedges did indeed marry and Pitts
fulfilled his testamentary obligations to Hedges.
An intriguing complaint before the June 1688 General Sessions and Common Pleas
illustrates the sway that widowed mothers could have over the education of their children.
Mary and Jabish Bryant are both listed as plaintiffs of a complaint against John Dwelly
for misusing and unreasonably beating Jabish. Although no fiduciary penalty was
levied against Dwelly, the Court freed Jabish from his apprenticeship and indentures
with Mary Bryant selecting his next master.80 As in the Bryants complaint, widows were
listed as co-defendants or co-plaintiffs with their children under the age of majority.
When Elisha Wadsworth cut down and deface severall of the bounds of the lands of
78 Ibid., 379.
79 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 273.
80 Plymouth Court Records 1686-1859, v.1 General Sessions of the Peace 1686-1721
and The Court of Common Pleas 1686-1702, ed. David Thomas Konig, (Wilmington,
DE: Michael Glazier, Inc. in association with the Pilgrim Society, 1978), 196.

VanHorne 24
Ensigne John Tracey in the year 1690, Mary Wadsworth, not Elisha, was listed as the
defendant and presumably, Mary would be responsible for the court costs.81 Thus the
courts, and the community at large, recognized the parental and legal authority of
widowed mothers. Widowed mothers were indeed perceived as authoritative in matters of
the education and proper rearing of their children but could share authority in other
respects, notably the marriage arrangements and material well-being of their children. A
situation that exemplifies these divisions in authority is contained in Nathaniell Tildens
will. Tilden exhorts the sole executor of his estate, his eldest son, to tend to the material
well-being of his other children. He then entrusts his widow with the education and
placement of his children into foster homes, my mynd and will is that my two yeongest
children Lidea & Steeven shalbe mayntayned both for meate drink apparell & lodging by
mine Executor hereafter menconed. Also my will is that my said wyfe shall have the
education and Disposeing of them.82 When divorced from the obligations of
executorship, Tilden and others conceived of widowed motherhood in a caretaking
capacity.
In Plymouth, it was fairly common for children to be put out into foster families or
apprenticed a decision to which both spouses had to assent, even if the arrangement was
stipulated in a decedents will.83 These guardianship arrangements often resulted in
complex scenarios that testators and their surviving spouses needed to anticipate and
navigate. In a 1633 will written while Samuell Fuller and his wife were stricken with
illness, Fuller had to specify guardianship/education arrangements for his two children
who were residing with other community members, and for three children from different
81 Ibid., 207, 215.
82 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 81.
83 Demos The Little Commonwealth, 88-89.

VanHorne 25
families that were comitted to my [Fullers] educacon.84 It is interesting to note that
Fuller provided for the educations of his children regardless of gender, as It is my will
that when my daughter Mercy is fitt to goe to scole that mrs Heeks may teach her as well
as my sonne.85 Material provision for daughters was also central to John Jenneys 1643
will, in which he gives his daughter Abigaile two of my cowes and my full consent to
marry with the said Henry Wood only if she resides with the Chauncey family for a
full year before her marriage.86 Jenneys concern with furnishing his consent shows the
influence of parents on the marital relationships of children. It is indeed evocative that
Abigaile was placed with a community member before her marriage perhaps as a way
to educate her in the domestic aspects of marriage. Some testators extended the
advisory role of supervisors beyond the needs of the widow and to her children. In 1667,
Nathaniel Warren wished that his supervisors, shall have full power and I doe heerby
Request them to advise about and take Care of my Children in Reference to theire
marriage; That they bee matched with such as may be fit for them both in Reference to
theire sperituall and outward estate.87 Even in their wills, testators thus sought to ensure
the proper educations, marriages, and living arrangements of their children thus
enforcing Puritan social values in their families, even after death.
One of the key factors shaping the independence of widows was the age of her children.
If a widow had grown sons, estate responsibilities would often be devolved to them.
Indeed, Salmon asserts that, Puritans assumed that in the event a mans estate could not
provide adequate support for his surviving spouse, the children of the marriage would
84 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 9.
85 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 12.
86 Ibid., 107.
87 Ibid., 464.

VanHorne 26
care for their mother out of feelings of love and duty.88Although this delegation of duties
could be interpreted as an extension of Keyssars concept of enforced dependency, this
situation may be more correctly interpreted as recognition of adult childrens claims and
designs on the estates of a parent. Indeed, it was common for elderly men themselves to
distribute their estates early, a situation that Demos refers to as retiring, in effect, on
the social security provided by a willing child.89 Decedents must have recognized the
powerful incentive of property to oblige heirs to care for a widow. For example, Richard
Silvesters 1663 will required his son to build his widow a house upon her request. His
son would be rewarded for his labors with, the one halfe of the Charge of the building
upon Consideration that hee is to enjoy it after my wife.90 Silvester thus created an
explicit connection between his wifes comfort and his sons future estate. In an
intriguing 1655 addendum to her will, the widow Sarah Jeney threatens to disinherit her
son of That which is my owne since the Death of my husband if he take away his
Children that are now heer with mee.91 Like Silvester, Jeney thus leveraged her estate to
maintain her preferred living arrangement with assistance from the two boyes while she
was sicke and weake in body.92 Through testamentary strategies like early estate
distribution and property incentives, decedents male and female ensured their security
in old age.
In the case that a widow was indigent, she could reside among the poor of the church.
Indeed, in 1652 Henery Adams gave Elizabeth harvy Widdow one of the poore of the
88 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 8.
89 Demos, The Little Commonwealth, 76. For an example of this phenomenon, see
Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 331.
90 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 386.
91 Ibid., 290.
92 Ibid., 290.

VanHorne 27
church of Christ in Taunton aforesaid a Cow which said Cow my will is shall belonge
unto her children;93 The care of poor widows was thus a community responsibility that
would be provided for, even upon the death bed of others with their own widows and
children. Although Main and Linderts sample of female decedents mirrors the complete
Plymouth sample as far as wealth distribution is concerned, Mains dataset illustrates a
major gap between the sexes with respect to wealth held in real estate an indication of
indigence in this agriculture-based economy. 47.6% of women with probate records were
landless at the time their estate was probated, with only 7 women recorded as
landholding.94 When all Plymouth probates are taken into consideration, only 12.1% of
the decedents were landless.95 Landlessness was thus a condition that widows were
exposed to more often than the population as a whole.96 However, this could be due to the
fact that real estate was usually granted to a widow only for the duration of her lifetime and thus, may not be recorded in her will. Indeed, the median and interquartile range
(IQR) of consumer goods (in of local currency) held by both samples mirrored each
other closely.97 However, the sample of all decedents had some right skew reflecting the
fact that no female decedents were in the top 10% wealth class.98 From these data, it is
apparent that women who chose to leave wills tended to have a measure of material
comfort.

93 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 240.

94 10 out of 21 women were landless, the remaining 4 have no landholding information
available.
95 37 landless, 128 landholders, 140 unavailable
96 See Table 2.1 in the Appendix.
97 See Chart 3.1 and 3.2 in the Appendix. Median is indicated by the thick line in the
center of the box, and IQR is the span between the top and bottom edges of the box.
98 See Table 1.1 in the Appendix.

VanHorne 28
Some widows avoided indigence by engaging in economic activity that integrated them
into the commercial activities of their community, like the sale of labor or participation in
domestic manufacturing. In John Greens 1660 will, he acknowledges a debt to Widow
Knot for his washing, and making 2 shirts for him.99 The 1652 inventory of Mary
Lindales estate notes that, sheers sold by the widdow Lindale are valued at 3 shillings,
out of a paltry total estate appraised at 12 18s. 4.d. We can assume that the sale of these
sheers was a subsistence activity that the widow Lindale participated in to augment her
decedent husbands provisions. In Philip Phibens 1684 will, he leaves 12 shillings to
Mary Cudworth for her tendence. Two other individuals, both men, are also allocated a
portion of the estate for this same reason. We can assume that Cudworth performed duties
that the ailing Phibens could not perhaps housework or basic care.100 Indeed,
commercial activity could embroil widows in legal woes. In 1688, a widow Mary Parker
was brought before the Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas for unlicensed
sale of cider, and was fined 50 shillings.101 The license that Widow Parker lacked would
have likely taken the following form, to sell by Retail Wine and Strong liquors to their
neighbors as occasion may be spent out of their houses provided they sell not to Indians
or such as they may rationally judge will abuse themselves therewith.102 It is important
to note that Parker was not penalized for the act of selling cider itself, but for her lack of a
license so one can assume that maintaining drinking establishments was acceptable for
women in this period. The few instances above are the only commercial activities of
widows that I could locate within probate material. As inventories would catalogue
99 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 494.
100 Pope, The Plymouth Scrap Book, 48.
101 Plymouth Court Records 1686-1859, v.1, ed. David Thomas Konig, 196.
102 Ibid., 206.

VanHorne 29
property, debts outstanding, and debts due, the only instances of commercial activity
reflected are those that were left unpaid. Some scholars have suggested that during the
colonial period, property-holding women clustered in areas of greater economic
opportunity, such as Boston. As Plymouth colony remained rural throughout this period,
it would not have possessed an economic and social climate attractive to entrepreneurial
widows.103
Occasionally, women directly participated in the subsistence agriculture that dominated
the economic activity of the region. Often, widows had a life interest in her deceased
husbands real estate, which meant that she could enjoy the rents and profits from the
lands during her lifetime.104 However, some women owned property outright. Elizabeth
Pole left behind a 188 11 s. 7 d. estate excluding her housing and land, dwarfing most
of her male contemporaries with her material wealth. Pole indicates that she built her own
dwelling, possessed an orchard, and owned at least 200 acres in meadows. She does not
mention a husband - deceased or alive - and bequeaths all of her property to siblings and
cousins, indicating a state of childlessness. Pole also invests in key commodities, as she
possesses a 25 10 s. share in the Iron worke.105 Thus, a survey of the probate records
of widows reveals that their economic conditions varied widely from an indigent
reliance on charity, to precarious residences on a deceased husbands lands, to prosperity
through the ownership of agricultural operations. Again, widowhood emerges as a diverse
status eluding generalization.
Through an exploration of colonial probate records, the modern historian can gain a
glimpse into key life events and transitions like widowhood. Indeed, the family was the
103 Keyssar, Widowhood in Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts, 98-99.
104 Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America, 143.
105 Simmons, Plymouth Colony Records, 299-303.

VanHorne 30
most fundamental unit of Puritan life and society making an understanding of this little
Commonwealth essential to any understanding of colonial New England. As John
Demos states in the closing arguments to his monograph, Family and community,
private and public life, formed part of the same moral equation. The one supported the
other, and they became in a sense indistinguishable.106 A family-centered approach
allows one to observe the relationship of women to colonial jurisprudence, the diverse
socioeconomic conditions and circumstances in which widows lived, and the family
dynamics that women experienced before and after a husbands death. Although the
probate system and the jurisprudence underpinning it stayed fairly static over the course
of the seventeenth century, I found that the few changes that occurred truncated the
independence of women. For example, midcentury advent of the office of supervisor and
the increasing frequency of for widowhood property stipulations increased community
oversight of widows during the estate allocation process. Yet, out of the legalese of wills
and inventories, one can glimpse the diversity and complexity of these family dynamics
and ultimately, the love that underpinned these relationships. These critical junctures in
life sickness, widowhood, death, and dying can reveal the most fundamental values of
the individual.

106 Demos, A Little Commonwealth, 186.

VanHorne 31
Appendix 1: Tables and Graphs
1.1 Wealth Distribution Table

All decedents
Female decedents

Bottom 30%
(Gross Personal Wealth 0

Middle 30%
(Gross Personal Wealth 27.52

Upper 30%
(Gross Personal Wealth 62

to 27.36 sterling)
90
6

to 62.74 sterling)
107
9

to 179.22 sterling)
78
5

1.2 Wealth Distribution, All Decedents

All decedents

Bottom 30%

Middle 30%

1.3 Wealth Distribution, Female Decedents

Upper 30%

VanHorne 32

Female decedents

Bottom 30%
Middle 30%
Upper 30%

2.1 Landholding Table

Land
Holder
All decedents
128
Female decedents 7

Landless

N/A

Proportion

37
10

140
4

Landless
0.121311475
0.476190476

3.1 Boxplot of All Decedents Consumer Goods (in of local currency)

VanHorne 33

3.2 Boxplot of Female Decedents Consumer Goods (in of local currency)

4.1 Table of Decedent Age Class

VanHorne 34
mostly ages 1724
All decedents
4
Female decedents 0

mostly ages 24-

mostly ages 45-

ages 65-74

ages 75-up

44
83
4

64
91
5

59
5

39
6

4.1 Chart, Age Class of All Decedents

All decedents
mostly ages 17-24
mostly ages 24-44
mostly ages 45-64
ages 65-74
ages 75-up

4.2 Chart, Age Class of Female Decedents

Female decedents
mostly ages 17-24
mostly ages 24-44
mostly ages 45-64
ages 65-74
ages 75-up

VanHorne 35
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