An additional note. Detailed inventories were usually made of the
estates of all deceased men, not just those who died intestate (without
a will). As Paul pointed out, the detailed inventory was useful for a
good many purposes when settling the estate, paying off debts, going
after creditors, and dividing up property.

For a brief but very useful article on probating estates, see Harold B.
Gill Jr. and George M. Curtis III, "Virginia's Colonial Probate Policies
and the Preconditions for Economc History," Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography 87 (1979): 68-73, which points out that a law of 1748
allowed a person writing a will to exempt the estate from being
appraised, which would mean that no inventory would likely be taken or
filed.

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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