Retrieval Number: 0102/3/ p. 148
Inventory of property belonging to the Estate of the late Thompson Trueman, real and personal taken by Silvanus Miner, Richard Carter and Robert Trenholm by warrant from the Judge of Probate, Aug. 22, 1845.
Mount Allison University Archives, Trueman family fonds.
May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives

Inventories taken at the time of death provide one of the most reliable means to assess the financial and material wealth of the deceased and as such provide a glimpse of the level of living and social standing of the individual. In this case we can look at the accumulation of wealth of a prominent farmer, Thompson Trueman of Point de Bute, who died after being thrown by his horse. The document reveals that Trueman held a total of 1,075 acres, in 11 distinct parcels, including upland, marsh and wilderness land. Indeed the largest block was described as 750 acres of wilderness in 3 lots for which the assessors could not assign a monetary value. Nevertheless they estimate the value of these holdings at £1625, the bulk of which came from the 145 acre home farm which included “buildings and improvements.” We also see that Trueman owned a sizeable array of livestock consisting of 14 cows, 18 other cattle, 2 yoke of oxen, 6 horses, 40 sheep, 6 hogs and 19 “Spring pigs”all of which had a value of £1288.17.0. His other possessions consisted of an array of wagons, carts, a sleigh, harness, implements, seed, lumber, the estimated produce from fields with crops yet to be harvested, as well as the 100 tons of hay already in hand, and finally a comparatively modest accumulation of household furnishings and utensils. In total his real and personal estate was valued at £3,151.14.6. What is not indicated is any liquid financial assets such as savings or investments, nor do we see what might be owed to or owed by Trueman with respect to others with whom he did business. Was he a rich man? Was he typical of the general run of farmers in the Tantramar at this time? Without being definitive the scale of his land holdings and the scale of his livestock inventory placed him in the upper ranks of farmers in the Maritime region at this time and though the nature of his many farming operations was different, the level of capital accumulation indicated here would equate with of the upper ranks of prosperous contemporaries in Upper Canada at this time. In this sense Trueman was probably the exception rather than the rule for this region.