Aaron Russell wrote:
>I have been confused for some time now about the uses of the words "to" and
>"by," which are commonly found preceding entries in these (probate)
documents.  Many
>of the examples of "to" appear in the context of accounts of sales of
>estates, in which "to" seems to imply "toward" ("John Doe To a pot 0:1:0,"
>for example), or in appraised inventories of estates ("to six sheep
>3:0:0").  In other cases, however, entries in inventories are prefixed with
>"to," with no values given (such as "to sheep, to pots, to spoons," etc.).
 
 
 
Having wrangled with some of this stuff, I too tried to find a good
reference to the "to" "by" etc.  It was easy to figure out the cr (credit)
dr (debt/debit) do (ditto) but to and by appear to reference direction (as
you noted)
 
_to_ sems to be a value applied "to" an object whereas _by_ seems to be
value given "by" an object.
 
Probate records have almost exclusively "to" values except in cases of
debts that are owed to the estate where you might see it written as "Estate
of Jim Smith dr John Doe by one chair."  Trade or barter records
(non-probate) will often be recorded as "to two pots by one chair"
 
Then again this doesn't really answer your question, but I would be
interested in any answer that people might have.
 
Dan W.
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