Franklin County Records, Will Book B

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Franklin County, North Carolina Will Book B
1794 - 1804

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Order item B084
FORMAT: PRINT ONLY
The book is 73 pages, fully indexed, soft cover with a plastic comb binding, and available for $12.98 plus $3.99 shipping & handling charge (Add $1.00 S&H for each additional volume ordered).
    This is the sequel to Will Book A. It is like the first in format. The wills themselves comprise relatively few of the 188 pages in Will Book B. There are only fifty (50) wills in this book, and four of these have been recorded twice each. We have been unable to discover why.
    These wills predate, of course, standard published forms. They do not predate established norms. Most of the wills begin with an invoking of God, the name of the testator, the county where the will is drawn (assume Franklin County except in those cases where it is specified otherwise), provisions for paying the debts of the estate, the legacies, appointment of executor(s), the signing (It is written "his mark" to indicate the common "X", or "signed" to indicate whether the actual signature appears), the date of the will, and witnesses. Several nuncupative wills (oral wills later reduced to writing) appear in will Book B. They are indicated as they occur. On page 46 are abstracts of two wills which do not occur in WB B but which were found in the original files of wills for Franklin County in the N. C. State Archives in Raleigh, N. C. These two wills occurred in the years covered by WB B.
    Most of WB B is estates records, in themselves a treasure trove for historians and family researchers. We have inventories. For the most part is abstracted the amount of the land, the number and where named the names of the slaves, and then all other names which may appear within an inventory. No indication was made whether they owed or were owed by the estate. We tried to discover and record all information about any individual named, whether occupation or place of residence or living or dead. We have estates sales. Again, dates, principals, names of buyers and names of slaves, and acreage if reported we have abstracted. We have guardian accounts, and again we recorded all information that could be found regarding individuals and lands. There are smatterings of other records, such as powers of attorney, which relate to estate proceedings.

© 2002 Richard R. Dietz, all rights reserved