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I think you're reading far, far too much into this. When a person died and left a will, he could name an "Executor" who was the person the deceased actually nominated to see to the administration of his estate. If that person refused to perform the duty, or died before the job was accomplished, or if the person did not name a Executor, or did not have a will at all, then the court appointed someone - usually a relative or in-law or close friend, but sometimes the largest creditor if no one else qualified - to administer the estate. The short definition is that the Executor was named by the deceased, while the Administrator was named by the Court, but both did essentially the same thing. In either case the court almost always required someone to post bond, i.e., security, for the Executor(s)'s or Administrator's proper performance of his job.
Robert Sanford died intestate, i.e., without a will, and his widow applied to be his Administratrix, which was approved. Both Seth Pettypool and Francis Ray/Wray volunteered to be bond for her security. Standard operating procedure for those days, and even much like today...
Usually the people who were so named as security were related in some way to the deceased, or at least had personal interests in the estate's administration. As such it is frequently a good clue to family relationships. And that certainly was the case for Seth Pettypool.
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