Interpreting Seventeenth-Century Probate Documents: John Carter, Master Carpenter in St Albans

This is a study of a successful seventeenth-century carpenter in St Albans, John Carter, using probate and other documents, assisted by a large-scale computer database of St Albans residents of the period. Sections of the article cover his family, his work and his house and its contents, which have been reconstructed from his probate inventory and from knowledge of the structure of other local houses of the period. Carter's social standing is discussed, both in its local context and in relation to previous probate inventory analyses. This micro-study sheds unusual light upon aspects of the life of a 'middling sort' of person, living in a thriving market town in close proximity to London, at the beginning of the consumer age.