State-Wide, NC - Note to J. Bryan Grimes Wills & Inventories

                           NOTE

   In the following pages are published for the first time some
of the most interesting wills and inventories filed or recorded
in the office of the Secretary of State.

   The wills and inventories give the most accurate illustration
of industrial and social life in the colony of North Carolina
that is obtainable, and will furnish to students of our history
an invaluable source of information about economic conditions
prior to the Bevolution.

  The following paragraphs taken from the introduction to a
volume entitled "Abstract of North Carolina Wills," pub-
lished in 1910 is applicable also to this publication:

  "Occasionally is it found that a testator known to be
an educated person signed his will by making his mark,
so it is not always an evidence of illiteracy when the will is
signed by a mark, nor is the signature to the will generally
a satisfactory signature of the testator, as often he was sick,
weak or infirm in body at the time of signing the will. It will
be observed that the terms 'father-in-law' or 'mother-in-law'
often mean stepfather or stepmother; sometimes they are re-
ferred to as 'father' or 'mother.' The term 'cousin' will
frequently be found to mean nephew or niece.

  "It is interesting to note that in wills prior to 1752, two 
years are generally named for dates in the months of January,
February and March; for instance, January 20, 1718/19; but
this was not always the ease, and occasionally only one year
is given.

  "On the continent and in Scotland the Gregorian Calendar
was in use, but it was not adopted in England until 1751,
when Parliament passed 'An Act for Regulating the Com-
mencement of the Year, and for Correcting the Calendar now
in use.' This act provided that the year begin on the first
day of January, 1752, and not on the twenty-fifth of March,
as was then the usage. The same act provided that eleven
days be omitted in September, 1752, 'and that the natural
Day next immediately following the said second Day of Sep-
tember, shall be called, reckoned and accounted to be the
fourteenth Day of September, omitting for that Time only the
eleven intermediate nominal Days of the common Calendar,
and that the several natural Days which shall follow and
succeed next after the said fourteenth Day of September shall
be respectively called, reckoned and numbered forwards in
numerical Order from the said fourteenth Day of September,
according to the Order and Succession of Days now used in
the Present Calendar.' If this is kept in mind, it will reconcile
many apparently contradictory dates."

  In selecting the wills for printing it was intended to choose
those that reflected most dearly the varied phases of domestic
life of the colony.

  Not many inventories are printed, but enough are given to
throw a strong side light on economic conditions in the colony
at the time the inventories were made.

  The bad order and illegibility of many of the original wills
make exact copying difficult, but every effort has been made
to secure faithful copies.

  I desire to express my appreciation of the services of Mr.
W. P. Batchelor, to whom I am indebted for reading the proof
and preparing the index.
                                      J. BRYAN GRIMES.

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