I've seen it in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.  It's a bit difficult to automatically say yes, she used the first letter of her maiden name when the record you're looking at involves names like Smith, Jones, Black, White.  I tend to think maybe, but maybe not.  But if the names were to be replaced by Zimbowski, Izambord or Gwynned and the record looked like this:

  John Izambord sells 300 acres to Andrew Zimbowski; witnesses are Jack Gwynned, Alan Zimbowski, Cuthbert Zimbowski; Mary (her mark "Z") Izambord relinquishes dowry

  Wouldn't it be safe to tentatively identify the wife of John Izambord as Mary Zimbowski?

Sunshine49 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Sorry I can't help you; the documents I've looked at all have a large
X and "her mark" if they could not write their name. Have you seen
this in several places, or might it have been used in a certain
locality?

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 12, 2007, at 5:24 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:

> In colonial Virginia was it common for females who could not write
> to use the first letter of their maiden names as their mark on
> legal documents?
>
> For example, If a piece of land was sold by a man named Gunther
> to a man named Jones and if the witnesses were named John Doe and
> Joseph Doe and if Gunther's wife relinquished dower and made her
> mark "D," would it be reasonable to think that her maiden name
> might be Doe?
>
> Clara
>
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