Friends of Friends: Mills Eley, 1805, List of Slaves from Appraisement, Isle of Wight County Virginia

Copyright 2017, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

As I work through the documents I have collected over the years, I find facts to share.  Such as:

Part of the appraisement of Mills Eley, dated 1805, Isle of Wight County, Virginia, with a list of slaves, our focus for today.

Mills Eley, Probate, Appraisment, date submitted to Court, Isle of Wight County, Virginia was June 3, 1805.

This transcription is to record the names of the slaves.  Values all recorded in "pounds" on original, only numbers shown here in this transcription.

Negroes, towit, Peter 100 - - Jack 40 - - Scotland 90 - - Nath 90.  (Line totals 320)

Gilly  60 - - Jenny 30 - - Aggy  75 - - Voylet of Young Child (?) 90  (Line totals 255)

Tarley 30 - - Selvey  30 - - Abram  20 - - Moses  24 - - Lucy 15  (Line total 119)

Ben  36 - - Beck  15 - - Cherry 5  (Line total 56)

I have several other pages of Mills Eley's probate case.  If you are interested in same, please contact me via this blog, in comments.

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Friend of Friends, Chancery Case, Isle of Wight County, Virginia, 1812, Morris vs Seeds

Copyright 2017, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

As found at the Library of Virginia website, Chancery Cases, Case 1812-015.  Slave names highlighted in red.  For copies of your own that are less pixelated, download from the Library of Virginia, they will be much better.  

To the Worshipfull Court of Isle of Wight in Chancery sitting, humbly complaining ???? unto the court your orator and oratrix - Everett Morris and Peggy Morris infant children of Hezekiah Morris decd, Suing by Matthew Edwards - - their next friend, that their said father died in the said county about the day of 1809. intestate - - and leaving a widow who has since intermarried with and is now the wife of William Seeds and your complainants. That at the time of his death the said Hezekiah, was seized of three forths of a track of land in the said county which contains about two hundred acres, and in possession of the whole tract, the other one forth of which was vested in the brother of said Hezekiah - - John. That John by his will, bearing the date the day of 18 devised his said share of the said land to your complainant Everitt Morris - - That the said intestate left also three slaves - - namely - - Sam, Demps & Dick of his own proper estate. That the said widow & Seeds her present husband, is entitled to one third part of the said two thirds of the said tract of land and one third of the said slaves for and during her natural life, in right of her dower, your complainant Everitt to one forth part of the

The said tract of land; being the under??? proportions Of his (brother - word crossed out) uncle John, Devised to him aforsaid, and the said Everitt & Peggy, to the residue of the said lands subject to the widows dower as aforesaid and to the said slaves, equally between them, subject however to the said widows dower therein, as aforesaid.- - Your complainants being of under years and in want of their respective shares of the land and slaves aforesaid, have applied repeatedly to the said Seeds and wife & who are possessed of the whole estate of land and slaves aforesaid, for a fair and just division of the same in manner and form aforesaid. But the said Seeds and wife; not regarding the justice of the case refuse to comply with your complainants very reasonable request. In tender consideration whereof and forasmuch as your complainants are without remedy only in this court of equity, to the end therefore they pray that the said Seeds and wife be made defendants to this bill, and time answer make to the same. That the court will decree and order a division of the land and Slaves aforesaid in the manner aforesaid, and appoint fit persons as commissioners and direct the surveyor of the county to accompany them to cary the decree into

full effects - - Lastly - - your complainants pray that any other of further Order or decree may be entered in and concerning the premises as may promote justice - - may it please ??

The answer of William Seeds & his wife to the foregoing bill in equity - - These respondents refused their consent to a division as prayed for, not with a view to injure or defraud the complainants; but simply on account of their infancy. They will submit most chearfully to such decree as this court shall consider necessary and proper.

There are other Chancery cases involving William Seeds.  If they mention slave names, I will post them as they are transcribed.

Good luck in your research.

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Carnival of African-American Genealogy, Restore My Name

It seems that I have hit a gold mine of slave names in Virginia Chancery Cases. As time permits I will be sharing these, giving names I find in hopes that slave descendants will benefit from my digging in the Chancery. I have set up a special page where I will list the links to these posts as they appear, “Slave Names Virginia Chancery, Friend of Friends” (See the right hand column of my blog)

Today’s offering is from the Chancery Cases of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, the Library of Virginia has them digitized.

Plaintiff(s) EVERIT MORRISS BY ETC
MARGARET MORRISS BY ETC
Defendant(s) EXR OF NANCY MORRISS
NATHANIEL YOUNG EXR
Index # 1814-013 (9 pages)

Those interested in this case should pay close attention to pages 4, 5, 7, and 9.

The slave owners in this case are the Morris family. The slaves named are Tom and Milly. The following graphic is part of page 9, the Will of Nancy Morris.  I am still working on tying Nancy into my linege/data base.  It appears that Nancy Morris is the sister of Hezekiah Morris.  See below for additional information on his family.

This is my entry to the 1st Carnival of African-American Genealogy, Restore My Name

The challenge follows:

Restore My Name – Slave Records and Genealogy Research, will kick-off this African-American themed carnival intended to be a gathering place for the community to share and learn about African-American genealogy.

This first CoAAG theme will deal with how records of slave ownership are handled by the genealogy researcher. Contributors will be asked to write a blog post (at their own blogs) on one or more of the following aspects (my answers follow each question):

What responsibilities are involved on the part of the researcher when locating names of slaves in a record? Find a way to get those names and information out in the public, blog em, find a depository, on line or otherwise and SHARE! This is about human and family history kindness.  Do the right thing, share what you find.

Does it matter if the record(s) are related to your ancestral lines or not? NO

As a descendant of slave owners, have you ever been pressured by family not to discuss or post about records containing slave names? NO

As a descendant of slaves, have you been able to work with or even meet other researchers who are descendants of slave owners? Not applicable.

Have you ever performed a Random Act of Genealogical Kindness involving slave ownership records? Or were you on the receiving end of such kindness? See my post Relatively Speaking, Slave Names & Chancery Cases

*  Hezekiah Morris married Amelia Battin.  They had two children Everitt and Margaret (Peggy).  After Hezekiah's death, Amelia, also known as Permilia, Pamilia and Melia, marries William Seeds.  Amelia and William have 5 known children, Mary Ann, Edmund ,Nancy, Permilia and William.  Slave descendant researchers should look at Chancery cases involving the Seeds clan as well.  Future posts will include additional cases I have found, and the seach has just begun.

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.

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Relatively Speaking, Slave Names & Chancery Cases

If you read cousins Anne's post, Things in Common & Diverse Results, and cousin Karen's post, Names Names Names, you will see that the Wild One's research, though on common ground, is quite, as Anne says, diverse.  We love comparing, we all learn from it, and sometimes we get a good laugh, or cry.

This discussion began, when I found some slave names in early Chancery cases in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  I believe I have found names before over the years, but have not done much with that information, even though I have had every intention of doing so.  That well meaning intention stated, I really don't think I have had an effective method to do so, but I feel Reflections From the Fence is a great place to start. 

So, lets begin.  My discoveries were made when I was informed that Chancery cases from Isle of Wight County Virginia had been digitized and were available at the Library of Virginia web site.  At the bottom of this page (currently left bottom) you will see a link that says, "Site Index".  Click it and it takes you here.  Now click on "Chancery Records Index" and you find yourself, here.  After reading the intro, click on Search the index, currently the last link of the page, you will find yourself here. 

After a few visits to the site, I found I get the best results from my search requests by using the "Surname" search, and only using one name, even if I know more names that are involved. 

Note:  Not all Virginia counties have been digitized, I am anxiously awaiting Rockingham County, I KNOW I have several cases there involving my great-grandfather Charles Homan Trumbo, but, I digress.

Now that you know where I was searching, I am going to give you links to several Chancery cases in Isle of Wight that concern my ancestors or individuals I am researching.  I have been downloading pages and pages, at least 500 pages over several long days.  I have tried transcribing a few of them, and to say it is laborious is rather an understatement. We all know old handwriting is a tough assignment, and believe me, some of these pages surely live up to that.

Case # 1:  Plaintiff(s) WIDOW OF JOHN MARSHALL, PATSEY MARSHALL WIDOW
Defendant(s) MARTHA MARSHALL &C BY ETC
Index number:  1834-024.  I believe this is the earliest dated case I have found. Case has 9 pages, I would draw your attention to page 2, which names slaves, here is a screen shot.

Even if you open this graphic you can see it is a hard read.  The names appear again on page 8, which is a little easier on the eyes.

Here it is after a bit of photoshop editing:

On page 9 of this Chancery case you will find values of the slaves (note the description of Simon, who seems to be the son of Louis, in one sentence on this page he is referred to as " & Louis's small child Simon").

Case # 2: Plaintiff(s) MARTHA MARSHALL &C BY ETC
Defendant(s) ADMR OF JOHN MARSHALL
Index number: 1835-002
Case has 15 pages, please look at page 7. This page gives specific information on which heir received which slave, hopefully that information would aid researchers.

Another related case is
Case # 3 Plaintiff(s) MARTHA MARSHALL &C BY ETC
Defendant(s) POLLY MARSHALL BY ETC
Index number: 1835-006

Lets take a moment and talk about my ancestors, in hopes that it will assist researchers:

John Marshall was born about 1788, married in 1816 to Martha "Patsey" Darden, and died in December of 1829.

John and Martha had the following children: John Lawson Marshall, Adolphus Marshall, Polly Marshall, Lydia Marshall, Thomas J. Marshall and Martha Marshall.

Martha "Patsey" Darden Marshall, widow married her second husband, Exum Eley in 1832 in Isle of Wight County Virginia.  Exum was a widower having had 7 children with his first wife, Polly B. Moody, they are:  William H. Eley, Exum L. Eley, George W. Eley, James M. Eley, Sally A. Eley, Rebecca (middle initial in question) Eley and Thomas J. Eley. 

Martha "Patsey" Darden Marshall Eley and Exum Eley had 3 children:  Virginia C. Eley, Stephen A. Eley and my direct ancestor, Solomon B. Eley (also found in records as Solomon J. Eley).

All these names appear in the last two cases of the day:

Case # 4: Plaintiff(s) WIDOW OF EXUM ELEY and MARTHA ELEY WIDOW
Defendant(s) EXR OF EXUM ELEY ETC
Index # 1850-001 (Note 14 pages)

Case # 5:  Plaintiff(s) EXR OF EXUM ELEY
Defendant(s) MARTHA ELEY ETC
Index # 1850-010 (Note 101 pages)  Researchers looking for slave names in this Chancery case please start by checking out pages 23 and 32. 

As you can see, I will be very busy for months to come digesting and inputing all this information from Chancery cases.  I still have more cases to investigate.  I will let you know if I find more slave names, in hopes that I can give some leads to those who may be looking. 

It is easy to see, that again, cousins that research, even looking in the same time frames may find totally different kinds of records and have totally different results.

* I also draw you attention to these great posts and blogs where discussions on sharing of slave information is ongoing.  No particular order to my list here, just a few of the great places I have found information and hints, and maybe a bit of  inspiration.  No, this is NOT a comprehensive list, just a jumping off point for you, my readers.

Gini, of Ginisology, wrote about Friend of Friends.  Luckie from Our Georgia Roots, talks about this issue on her Monday Madness post.  Wow, she got a lot of feedback on this one. Sandra Taliaferro, from I Never Knew My Father is writing about this subject as well, including the Friend of Friends project. Mavis from Conversations With My Ancestors gave me some great ideas for sharing my slave names, I need to revisit those suggestions again Mavis, thank you so much.

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.
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