Mary Graves dowry list, 1830

Mary Graves dowry list, 1830

Williamsburg (Mass.); Graves, Mary Dickinson, 1805-1881; Montague, John, 1796-1881; Graves, John, 1773-1843; Dowry--Massachusetts--Williamsburg; House furnishings--Massachusetts--Williamsburg.

This is a handwritten list of the goods purchased for Mary Dickinson Graves of Williamsburg, probably by her father under her mother's direction, in preparation for her October 6, 1830 marriage to Deacon John Montague of Sunderland, Massachusetts. It appears to encompass everything that a middle-class housewife of the period needed to set up country housekeeping from scratch, from a single piece of paper to 33 yards of carpeting, and it tells the price paid for every item. The list probably remained with Mary's father, John Graves, because there is an April 1838 notation on it in a different ink, recording his gift of $200 to her eight years after the wedding. He would have saved this document for reference in deciding how to apportion his estate among his children when making his will, but for us it is far more interesting as a window into what the Graves and Montague families considered indispensable to the initial domestic arrangements befitting a deacon and his wife. The document measures 7.75 x 13.1 inches.

John Graves

C/WMARS, Inc. http://www.cwmars.org/

1830

Permission to publish the image must be obtained from the Williamsburg Historical Society by writing to ddarienzo@cwmars.org or Meekins@cwmars.org. The Williamsburg Historical Society, Williamsburg, Mass., must be credited as the original source of the item for all use.

Part of the Williamsburg, Mass. Historical Society, Graves Farm Documents Collection.

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Williamsburg Historical Society--Graves Farm Documents Collection--Mary Graves dowry list