Wills

Abstract

Photocopies of court documents from the Tuscaloosa County (Alabama) Probate Court, regarding the estates of Isaac Cannon and Mordecai F. Doughty

Scope and Contents This collection contains two letters from Edward Vernon Sparhawk to Walter Jones, regarding Tucker vs. Randolph's Executors, a case related to the will of Virginia planter and politician John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia. Sparhawk contacted Jones, who litigated the case before the Supreme Court, to inform Jones of his research, which Sparhawk planned to publish in an article or book. The first letter, dated August 5, 1835, was sent from Richmond,...

Abstract

This collection contains the will and estate papers of Mrs. Elizabeth Cherry Weir (d. 1821) of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; letters to Pauline Jones Gandrud regarding the Cherry family genealogy; and and estate paper for John Warner of Tuscaloosa, 1824.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a single legal manuscript: the last will and testament of William Aiken, dated 1837, from Butts County, Georgia. The document outlines the distribution of Aiken’s estate, including the transfer of enslaved individuals to named heirs. It provides an example of how enslaved people were treated as part of personal property and incorporated into inheritance practices. This document offers insight into legal and economic customs in the antebellum South, particularly...

Abstract Primarily receipts and statements but the collection also includes Robert S. Foster’s will and a deed for 1,274 acres of land from the heirs of Robert S. Foster to Edmond L. Prince in 1859 for the sum of $19,110.00. Most of the statements are for the freight, wharfage, drayage, weighing and storage of cotton shipped by steamboats, and are listed for either Mrs. Ann Foster or the Estate of Robert S. Foster. Other receipts are for the purchase of clothing, books and magazine...

Abstract

Consists principally of personal correspondence from Francis Bugbee's family and close friends concerning family and personal news. as well as genealogical materials relating to the Bugbee family and many other Massachusetts and Connecticut families. There is very little business correspondence or any information concerning his years as trustee, judge, or legislator.

Scope and Contents This file contains a business card and two letters, with envelopes. One letter is dated April 1, 1871, and was sent to Mr. E. C. Hines in Newburgh, Warrick County, Indiana, from L. C. Castle in Memphis, Tennessee. The letter discusses the will of General Curtiss and the heirs of his estate; Castle was counsel to the executor of the will and had been communicating with George I. E. Carroll about the will. The other letter, dated October 16, 1871, is from Horatio Curtiss in Clinton, New York,...

Scope and Contents This collection contains the disposition of the estate of George Edwards, a nineteenth-century slaveholder who lived in Kentucky. The first two pages of Edwards' estate inventory includes animals, crops, farm equipment, furniture, and household goods, with values for each item appearing in a column on the right. The third page lists eighteen enslaved persons, including six men, six boys, three girls, and two women, one of whom is listed alongside her child. All are named and assigned a...

Abstract

Business correspondence, accounts, legal documents, and other materials (including the selling and purchasing of slaves) of this 19th century Marengo County, Alabama, plantation owner.

Abstract

This collection contains bills, family records, and wills of the Johnson family.

Scope and Contents

This single-page will, dated December 25, 1839, records the bequests of Margaret Davidson, who left four named enslaved individuals to her children. The document includes the names of Celia and her children, Ephraim, Sina and her children, and a boy named William. The enslaved individuals were divided between Davidson’s son, Samuel W. Davidson, and her daughter, Mary Crawford. The document likely originates from Alabama or Tennessee.

Abstract

Document describing the provisions of Grandfather McClung's will, including the direct and contingency provisions to the Missionary Society and the Bishops Cobbs and Brownell for use in their diocese.

Abstract

Record of Patton and Steele families. Photocopy of a book titled the "John Bunyan Book." Records of Dr. William Patton. Ancestors and descendants of Dr. William Patton, Green County, Alabama. Patton family letters (photocopies) and the will of Alexander Steele. Documents dealing with the genealogy of the Spencer and Nicholls families.

Scope and Contents The collection consists of a two-page handwritten estate inventory from 1842, which describes Compton's assets in Madison County, Tennessee. The inventory lists the names and ages of thirty-nine enslaved persons and the details of additional property, including eight horses, four mules, forty-six cattle, sixty-nine sheep, and between 150 and 175 hogs. The document also notes household furnishings, linen, food supplies, and outstanding debts related to the purchase of lumber, wood planking, a...

Scope and Contents

This file contains one letter from T. A. Marshall to a cousin in Louisvill[e]. The letter opens with a paragraph regarding the cousin's dower, but the bulk of it is devoted to the will of a Major Walls and the portion of it to go to the letter's recipient. Marshall suggests that the cousin take advice from someone near home who can learn the details of the case, as "my opinion is worth as little as that of other respectable lawyers."

Abstract

Bill of complaint with appended exhibits in the case of Taylor vs. Robinson, involving the alleged misuse or misappropriation of monies and property by the administrator of the estate of Byrd Brandon.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of a three-page letter dated March 14, 1825, sent from Hardinsburg, Kentucky, to Bedford County, Virginia. Written by Thomas Lowry to his brothers John, William, and Triptell Lowry, the letter discusses a legal dispute over the manumission of an enslaved man named Sam, whose freedom had been promised in their father's will. The letter includes explicit instructions to commit perjury in order to prevent Sam’s emancipation, including fabricating ownership claims and...

Abstract

A daily journal by and last will and testament of this Collinsville, DeKalb County, Alabama resident.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of Richardson's last will and testament, dated July 31, 1838, which was witnessed by Richard A. Buckner, George W. Towles, Eliza Buckner, and Joshua L. Brents. The will is twelve pages long. It covers furniture, horses, saddles, house, lands, liquid assets, livestock, and enslaved persons. Some of the latter he freed, and over the remainder he set conditions by which his wife and heirs had to abide, including not selling those individuals to cover debts or moving...