Remarkable Rosewood-Cased Set of 1839 New York Household Inventories, of French manufacture, second quarter 19th century, with a handwritten household inventory of Susan (Mrs. Henry) Parish (1805-1861), 49 Barclay Street, New York, dated 1839-1857, comprising four duodecimo ruled journals, full black leather, with brown spine with red panel and gilt lettering and decoration, presented in a rosewood-veneered and marquetry-inlaid case with spring-mounted catch which partially ejects the volumes when unlocked, overall, h. 8-3/4", w. 3-3/8", d. 5-1/2". Susan Maria Delafield, daughter of John and Ann Hallett Delafield, was married on October 7, 1829 to New York merchant Henry Parish (1788-1856), whose business interests included the firm of Gasquet, Parish & Co. in New Orleans. These journals record, in Mrs. Parish's hand, the inventory of their Barclay street home beginning in 1839 and with entries up through 1857, documenting the household goods of a member of New York's merchant class of the antebellum period. They present a remarkable array of porcelain, glass, silver, linens, all recorded with great attention to detail. The household goods are presented in one volume, and another records the "List of S.M.P. (Susan Maria Parish) Jewels", with the place and/or circumstances of acquisition for each item, such as the "pink-white topaz bg't in New Orleans, 1839" and other items bought in London, Paris, Geneva, Philadelphia and Naples. Mrs. Parish is perhaps best remembered for the acrimonious and protracted contestation of her husband's will. Soon after writing a will in 1842 leaving his considerable $898,000 estate (equivalent to about $25 million today) divided among his wife, siblings and namesakes, Parish began to suffer a series of apoplectic strokes, culminating in one in 1849 which left him permanently physically and mentally disabled. During this time, he executed three codicils to his will leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife. After his death in 1856, Parish's siblings challenged the codicils in a court case which lasted for six years and was not resolved until after Mrs. Parish's death on June 16, 1861. The final adjudication in May 1862 recognized the first of the three codicils, which left the bulk of Parish's real estate and business holding to his wife; according to her terms of her will, the estate was divided among her surviving brothers. The facts - and no little amount of arch and salacious testimony in which the complainants depict Mrs. Parish as an avaricious schemer manipulating her incapacitated husband - can be found in the 1862 publication The Parish Will Case (New York: D. Appleton, 1862). Additional information may be found in the Delafield family papers, conserved at Princeton University, which contain some poems by Mrs. Parish.