1783 Massachusetts Probate Bond – James Downing Estate, Somerset County – Official Court Document

An original probate bond from Massachusetts, dated February 1783, appointing an administrator for the estate of James Downing of Somerset County. This formal obligation was signed and sealed before the Judge of the Probate of Wills and witnessed by officials including John Brown, Tonal Harnsworth, and W. Morey.

The bond is printed with blanks filled in by hand in period script, and bears the signatures of the witnesses and officials. It outlines the administrator's duties to make a true and perfect inventory of the deceased's goods, chattels, and credits, to render accounts according to law, and to administer the estate faithfully. The document shows the formality and legal procedures of post-Revolutionary Massachusetts probate administration.

The paper shows age-appropriate toning, creasing, and soiling from nearly 241 years of storage. Some text on the back side is faded and difficult to read. The handwriting and printed portions on the front remain legible. An excellent piece for collectors of American legal history, genealogy, Massachusetts documents from the early federal period, or New England probate records, and it would display well framed.