In a message dated 26/12/2004 11:31:36 GMT Standard Time, jecroft@att.net writes: Also, a marriage "contract" was a very common occurence. Most of them stated the basics, i.e. what each party was bringing to the marriage. In the event of the death of the husband, there would be a legal record of what the wife was entitled to beyond her widow's portion. If she had brought items such as linens or livestock, she was entitled to their return or the equivalent. Hi I have seen 'marriage contracts' such as is described above but these were legal documents involving the property brought to a union bearing in mind that in times past the husband assumed control of his wife's goods and chattels. These, I would think, were quite distinct from those contracts mentioned in the OPRs where you could find the parties were domestic servants or farm labourers, for instance, and had little or no property of value. Ian A C Scott