"Being Old and Dayly Finding the Symptoms of Mortality": The Troubled Last Years of Hannah Beamon of Deerfield and the Law of 1726.
In early 1730 two prominent townsmen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, petitioned John Stoddard, judge of probate in Hampshire County, to provide for the care and maintenance of Hannah Beamon, a widow of Deerfield who had become non compos mentis, since there was no one legally qualified to take charge o...
| Published in: | Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 151 - 183 |
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| Format: | Article |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Spring2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=135603198&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 135603198 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15434273 00N jtl: Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal issn: 15434273 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2019 vid: 17 iid: 2 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 135603198 ppf: 151 ppct: 32 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: "Being Old and Dayly Finding the Symptoms of Mortality": The Troubled Last Years of Hannah Beamon of Deerfield and the Law of 1726. aug: au: HAMMER, CARL I. affil: University of Pittsburgh su: Capacity (Law) Guardian & ward Legal status of older people Mental illness Elder care Aging policy Home care of older people Actions & defenses (Law) History Deerfield (Mass.) United States sug: subj: Deerfield (Mass.) United States Capacity (Law) Guardian & ward Legal status of older people Mental illness Elder care Aging policy Home care of older people Actions & defenses (Law) History ab: In early 1730 two prominent townsmen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, petitioned John Stoddard, judge of probate in Hampshire County, to provide for the care and maintenance of Hannah Beamon, a widow of Deerfield who had become non compos mentis, since there was no one legally qualified to take charge of her. Judge Stoddard then instituted a procedure under the Massachusetts law first enacted in 1726 concerning "idiots, persons non compos or distracted," which augmented an earlier law of 1684 and then was periodically reenacted. This law specified the procedure for determining "non compos mentis," provided for the institution of guardians, and regulated their activities. Hannah Beamon lived under such guardianship until early 1739, when she died at the age of ninety-three. The numerous documents generated by her guardianship under the law were submitted to the Probate Court during that time and were included in the file when her will of 1723 was proved. All the original documents are now preserved at the Probate Court in Northampton, and digital images can be viewed at the American Ancestors website. These documents enable us both to follow the implementation of the law and to estimate the quality of care provided to her as well as the quality of the guardians' management of her estate. These documents indicate that the law was followed scrupulously, that large amounts were expended on her care, and that her property was soundly managed and carefully preserved so that her testamentary bequest to the local school of Deerfield could be funded. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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