Peter

Peter was enslaved by Joseph and Mercy Bartlett. He was given his freedom in Joseph Bartlett’s will of 1754. After he gained his freedom at Joseph Bartlett’s death in 1755, he was employed by Mercy Bartlett, who survived her husband and later left Peter property in her own will.

Peter and Dinah, the other enslaved person freed in Joseph Bartlet’s will, were two out of only three people mentioned in Mercy Bartlett’s will. The third was Mary Kingsley, presumably a friend, to whom Mercy left the balance of the estate. The only other entity who inherited anything was the church, to which Mercy left one silver cup. 

In Mercy Bartlett’s will, Peter was left the bed he slept on and furniture he used, an ax, a scythe, a one-eyed horse, four swine, four sheep, a gun, a pair of hatchets, one candlestick, one quart basin, one pewter spoon, 11 yards of plain cloth, a saddle and bridle, one great chair, and one small chair (Probate record of Mercy Bartlett, 1759).
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The items Peter inherited could indicate the type of work that he was doing while enslaved and later employed by the Bartletts. The hatchets and farm animals could suggest he was doing farm and caretaker work in the Bartlett home. 
The probate record also suggests that, though he may have had furniture he used, he had no real space of his own. Probate records were often grouped by the room they were in, not by type of item. In Mercy Bartlett’s probate record, one trundle bedstead is separate from the rest of the bedding. The objects immediately surrounding it (old baskets, a side saddle, old bags) suggest that the bed was in a storage space. Also suggestive: the items following these are livestock: pigs and horses. This suggests that Peter slept either in a storage room or in the barn.