Mary Jones Ellison and her husband Joseph ask the court to void the will of Vincent Jones, Mary's father. The petitioners accuse Patty Jones, Mary's stepmother, and her companion, Peter Tidwell, of conspiring to "to procure from the said deceased a last will and testament which would on the death of said deceased vest the whole property in them, to the entire exclusion of complainants." The Ellisons point out that eighty-year-old Vincent was "very feeble and sickly" and "his extreme old age rendered him very childish" and "incompetent to transact ordinary business in life." They argue that Patty Jones and Tidwell "by the improper influence & control which they had over him," coerced Vincent into signing a will that left all the property to Patty for life, and upon her death, the property descended to Tidwell. The Ellisons pray that the will be voided and an administrator be appointed to distribute property in the estate, which include a slave woman and her six children.
Result: Dismissed.
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Repository: Shelby County Archives, Columbiana, Alabama
