New York County Surrogate's Court estate inventories
Collection REC0123 - RG 064. New York State Surrogate's Court
Collection REC0123 - RG 064/RG 064.3. Surrogate's Court, New York County
Abstract
The collection consists of more than 11,000 estate inventories of individuals who died in New York County between 1786 and 1859. The collection was created by the Surrogate's Court, which was created by statute in 1787 and is responsible for the disposition of estate assets for each county in New York State. The collection consists primarily of concise descriptions and valuations of estate assets and debts, in the form of lists. The records, all of which are handwritten, were created by appraisers assigned by the Surrogate's Court. The collection complements historic collections of Surrogate's Court wills and probate files, also held by the Municipal Archives.
Extent
62 cubic feet
Dates
1786-1859
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. The collection has been microfilmed. Due to the fragility of the materials, researchers are required to use the microfilm, with some acceptions. Please contact us for more information or to make a research appointment.
Additional Description
Physical Location
Materials are located at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection is comprised of two accessions: ACC 1990-113 (Series 1) and ACC-1991-045 (Series 2). Both collections were accessioned by the Municipal Archives in 1990 and 1991, respectively. They were received from the Queens Borough Public Library, which in turn received them from CUNY Queens College.
Existence and Location of Copies
This collection has been microfilmed.
Processing Information
Series 1 (ACC-1990-113) was processed and microfilmed by Evan Knight and Karen Porter in 2007-2008 under a grant from the New York State Library. Series 2 (ACC-1991-045) was processed and microfilmed by Cynthia Brenwall, Rebecca Hahn, and Christine Lau under a grant from the New York State Library, 2010-2011.
In 2024, Rob Garber (Municipal Archives volunteer) completed archival processing and description work including reviewing the accessions’ provenance, scope and content, and history; renumbering box/folder numbers; and creating archival description. Staff archivist Patricia Glowinski created the resource record in ArchivesSpace in 2024.
In 2024, Rob Garber (Municipal Archives volunteer) completed archival processing and description work including reviewing the accessions’ provenance, scope and content, and history; renumbering box/folder numbers; and creating archival description. Staff archivist Patricia Glowinski created the resource record in ArchivesSpace in 2024.
Scope and Content Note
The collection includes both testate and intestate inventories—that is, the estates of individuals who died with and without wills in New York County. Individual estate inventories in the collection range from a single page to dozens of pages, and an appraiser’s attention to detail was often as evident for a modest estate as for a large one. Typically, an inventory includes furniture, paintings, books, furnishings, clothing, linens, and kitchen utensils. Inventories also include financial assets such as real estate, corporate and government bonds, cash, and real estate holdings. The estates of particularly wealthy individuals included property outside of New York, such as Stephen Getin’s 1807 estate that included property on the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean [Box 8, Folder 5]. The ownership of enslaved people is noted in some estate inventories. For example, the 1804 inventory of the estate of Samuel Kip (of Kip’s Bay) listed “three Negro girls, Jane, Phebe, and Hannah," as well as two enslaved men who apparently took advantage of Kip’s death by running away, "with little chance of return" [Box 11, Folder 12].
The collection's value to scholars derives from its level of detail, and from the insights it provides into New York City's 18th and early-to-mid 19th century material culture, personal and family wealth, and forms of urban taste and sophistication. In many cases the estate inventories are organized room-by-room, allowing fine-grained reconstruction of a residence or business. In some cases, contents of servants’ rooms are included, offering a rare window into their living conditions.
Lists of financial assets demonstrate the complex and often obscure banking systems of the time. Many estates also include numerous personal loan notes, often for mortgages, suggesting the large role played by non-institutional financial transactions. Some individuals loaned money to the United States to assist in the War of 1812, such as Philip Arcularius ("U. States, loan of 1813") [Box 1, Folder 7].
The wide range of occupations represented in the estates (baker, blacksmith, carpenter, grocer, doctor, butcher, cartman, broker, among many others) provides the opportunity to link occupations to possessions—including tools of tradesmen—and to relative wealth. The importance of maritime trade to New York City's economy is indicated by the estates of seamen, shipwrights, sea captains, mariners, and pilots. Wealthy New Yorkers also listed ships, or shares of ships and their cargoes, among their assets.
Inventories of decedents who owned retail establishments provide valuable information about the goods available for purchase during the first decades of the nineteenth century. The contents of a toy-store are a noteworthy example.
The representation of storied New York individuals and families is a notable feature of the collection. The names Stuyvesant, Livingston, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Schermerhorn, Van Wyck, Astor, Kip, Varick, and Beekman are in the collection, as decedents and in some cases as appraisers. Their connections are a reminder of how small and intertwined the privileged population of the city was—for example, the 1831 estate of Richard Varick, a former Mayor, was inventoried by James Roosevelt [Box 84, Folder 5).
The collection's value to scholars derives from its level of detail, and from the insights it provides into New York City's 18th and early-to-mid 19th century material culture, personal and family wealth, and forms of urban taste and sophistication. In many cases the estate inventories are organized room-by-room, allowing fine-grained reconstruction of a residence or business. In some cases, contents of servants’ rooms are included, offering a rare window into their living conditions.
Lists of financial assets demonstrate the complex and often obscure banking systems of the time. Many estates also include numerous personal loan notes, often for mortgages, suggesting the large role played by non-institutional financial transactions. Some individuals loaned money to the United States to assist in the War of 1812, such as Philip Arcularius ("U. States, loan of 1813") [Box 1, Folder 7].
The wide range of occupations represented in the estates (baker, blacksmith, carpenter, grocer, doctor, butcher, cartman, broker, among many others) provides the opportunity to link occupations to possessions—including tools of tradesmen—and to relative wealth. The importance of maritime trade to New York City's economy is indicated by the estates of seamen, shipwrights, sea captains, mariners, and pilots. Wealthy New Yorkers also listed ships, or shares of ships and their cargoes, among their assets.
Inventories of decedents who owned retail establishments provide valuable information about the goods available for purchase during the first decades of the nineteenth century. The contents of a toy-store are a noteworthy example.
The representation of storied New York individuals and families is a notable feature of the collection. The names Stuyvesant, Livingston, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Schermerhorn, Van Wyck, Astor, Kip, Varick, and Beekman are in the collection, as decedents and in some cases as appraisers. Their connections are a reminder of how small and intertwined the privileged population of the city was—for example, the 1831 estate of Richard Varick, a former Mayor, was inventoried by James Roosevelt [Box 84, Folder 5).
Biographical/Historical Information
The Surrogate's Court is New York State's probate court, with an additional responsibility for overseeing adoptions and guardianships. It is a branch of the state Supreme Court. The records of the Surrogate's Court for New York County date back to the origin of the court in 1787. Most of the court's records for New York County are held by the court itself, but a collection of estate inventories spanning the years 1786 to 1859 were transferred from the Surrogate's Court in the 1970s, first to CUNY Queens College and subsequently to the New York City Municipal Archives.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into two series. Within each series materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the decedent.
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title
- Guide to the New York County Surrogate's Court estate inventories, 1786-1859
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Rob Garver (archival description) and Patricia Glowinski (EAD encoding)
- Date
- 2024 June
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Sponsor
- Original archival processing and microfilming were made possible by grants from the New York State Library in 2007-2008 and 2020-2011.
Subjects