Index to the Probate Records of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence, Rhode Island From 1646 to and Including the Year 1899

Prepared under the Direction of
Edward Field
Clerk of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence,
exercising Probate Jurisdiction

The Providence Press
Snow & Farnham, Printers
63 Washington Street
1902

Prefatory Statement

The City Council of the City of Providence by Resolution approved April 6, 1897, directed the Clerk of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence to cause to be prepared dockets of all cases and matters now in the Municipal Court previous to October 6, 1891, and to cause to be entered therein in chronological order every case or matter by its proper title and number, with short memoranda of all proceedings had and papers filed thereon, with the dates when such proceedings were had or papers filed and with references to the places where the proceedings or papers are recorded, if there is a record thereof; and was also directed to prepare a separate alphabetical index of all such cases and matters, which index should refer to the number of each case with its date and nature. Provision was also made by this Reso­lution for an appropriation to carry out the work and subsequently authority was given for printing the index when completed.

Previous toOctober 6, 1891, it had not been the custom to number the several estates which had been brought before the court, but on that date a system of numbering was begun beginning with number 1. In order to avoid confusion in numbering the estates previous to this date, contemplated by the aforegoing direction of the City Council, it was decided to commence a new system of numbering with 1, and, to separate the two classes, the earliest records of estates had the letter "A" prefixed to the num­ber. From the earliest date of the proceedings of the Probate Court of Providence, up to December 25, 1820, no dockets had been kept, and, to comply with the directions heretofore mentioned, it was necessary to docket all such proceedings in order to begin a chronological and numerical system.

The various papers and other records in the Municipal Court were examined as well as the records of the Town Council in the office of the City Clerk, those in the office of the Recorder of Deeds, and the papers and documents in the custody of the Record Commissioners, in order to obtain every record possible of probate proceedings previous to this date. In collating all these references the card index system was used, a card being made for each estate as it was found and the various proceedings as they appeared among such books and papers entered thereon. In this way 1,759 new estates which had never before been docketed were placed in order for such a purpose, and were entered in docket Volume No. 1.

About this time, by act of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island a portion of the Town of Johnston was annexed to the City of Providence, and pursuant to Chapter 596 of the General Laws of said State, twenty-two volumes covering the entire proceedings of the Probate Court of. that town were deposited with the Clerk of the Municipal Court; in order to complete the work contemplated by the Resolution of the City Council, all these books had to be indexed and the papers relating to the estates recorded therein had to he sorted out from among thousands of old papers, which were transferred to the city, in accordance with this act of the General Assembly. From these records of the Town of Johnston 1,790 new estates were entered upon the probate records of the City of Providence. The records of the estates acted on by the Probate Court of Johnston were included in one docket, and num­bered Volume 2.

The estates entered in Volume 1 brought the records up to December, 1800. From December, 1800, up to December 25, 1820, when the first docket was begun, 1,046 estates were found which had not been previously docketed, these were entered in and constitute Volume 3. Certain other records, such as the declarations of Revolutionary pensioners and proceedings relative to the holding of real estate by aliens, which from their nature had required action by the Probate Court, and numbering 1,238 entries, were added to the dockets, and in order not to disturb the chronological order of the old dockets, which had been in use since the time they were first begun, these were included in a volume designated as Volume 22, making in all 5,833 estates which had been entered in the Probate Court from the earliest records thereof and up to October 6, 1891, which had never been docketed. The total number of estates which were thus numbered and arranged in chronological order, as provided by Resolution of the City Council, number 18,992.

It may be interesting to observe the relation which the number of estates bear to the population of the town and city at different times. The first record of the population of the town is for the year 1708, when its population was 1,446, from the year 1646 to 1708 but 96 estates, according to the records prepared under the foregoing Resolution, had been acted upon by the Providence Probate Court, and up to the year 1,731 the town of Providence included nearly the entire northern part of the colony of Rhode Island north of the Pawtuxet River; in the year 1800 the population of the town was 7,614; up to this period 1,759 estates covering one hundred and fifty-four years of the life of the town had passed through the Probate Court. In 1832 when Providence became a city the population was about 19,000. Up to this time 5,463 estates had been entered for probate; in 1840 when the population was 23,172, 6,068 estates had been entered for probate; in 1850, when the population was 41,513, 6,931 estates had been entered; in 1860, when the population was 50,666, 8,153 estates had been entered; in 1870, when the population was 68,904,10,023 estates had been entered; in 1880, when the population was 104,852, 12,843 estates had been entered; in 1890, when the population was 132,146, 17,306 estates had been entered. Up to October 6, 1891, the total number of estates was 18,992, as has been previously stated; from October 1, 1891, when the system was inaugurated of numbering estates, up to January 1, 1900, 5,567 estates had been numbered, making a total number of estates which are indexed in the present volume, 24,559, with upwards of 35,000 references.

The nature of the work required the most painstaking care in its preparation, which accounts for the time taken to complete it, and it is confidently believed that the following references are an accurate index to all estates entered for probate during the period covered.

EDWARD FIELD,
Clerk of the Municipal Court of the City of Providence

City Hall, March 1, 1902