Member WilliamWright

The library of William Wright of Plymouth, Massachusetts is documented in the probate inventory of his estate, taken 6 November 1633 and presented 2 January 1634. The books are all valued together: "It[em] one great Bible & a little bible. 1 Greenhams works. 1 salme booke wth 17 other smale books," located "In the bedchamber," valued at £1/3 (out of a total estate valued at £99/12).

Probate inventory published in C. H. Simmons, Jr., ed., Plymouth Colony Records (Picton Press, 1996), pp. 48-50. See also Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, Plymouth Colony's Private Libraries (Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, 2018), pp. 23-24.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Do you know of additional books which should be included here? Please contact Libraries of Early America coordinator Jeremy Dibbell.

William Wright (1587-1633) emigrated in 1621 on the Fortune, settling at Plymouth. Anderson reports that his tools seem to indicate that he likely worked as a carpenter or joiner.

See Robert Charles Anderson, ed., Great Migration Begins, pp. 2075-2076.