Expansive 1738 Boston Inventory for Female Merchant Mary Grosse Phillips Blair - Wealthy Household with Two Enslaved Persons

Mary (Grosse) Phillips Blair (1681-1738). Manuscript Document Estate Inventory, [Boston, Mass.] November 3, 1738. 8 pp., folio. Mary Blair was widow of Capt. John Phillips and Capt. William Blair, merchant. This inventory depicts a lavishly furnished mansion, vast real estate holdings, and a rich array of items in the shop -- suggesting that Mary Blair continued the mercantile trade after her husband's death in 1736. Also of note are enslaved persons, Cato and Monday. Thomas Hancock was one of the administrators of the estate, which was valued at over £28,232. Another copy of the inventory exists in state records (Suffolk County probate case 7223).

Fine condition.