Antoine Plumet claims that his father's executor cheated him, and he seeks to collect the money owed to him. Antoine Plumet the elder died in 1816. In his will, the elder Plumet gave to his "free born son Antoine Plumet" six slaves, exhorting his executor "to take care of his [the son's] Interest." The executor of the estate, Louis DeVillers, hired out the slaves and "earned large sums of money as wages." The younger Plumet reports that DeVillers gave him "small sums of money" and paid the expenses of the slaves, but he gave Plumet "a little but very little education to enable him to understand business." DeVillers used Plumet's ignorance to cheat him when they settled accounts "in as much as he had accounted for less than ($1350) ... when he ought to have accounted for upwards of ($3800)." DeVillers also persuaded Plumet to sign "a release ... of all claims and demands ... against said Executor." DeVillers died in 1831, and Peter Poirier became executor of his estate. When Plumet discovered the discrepancy, he asked Poirier to account for the difference, but Poirier refused. Plumet charges that DeVillers "took advantage of the ignorance and incapacity of your Orator ... and that said settlement and release were therefore fraudulent and void and ought to be set aside." He asks the court "to decree that the account be taken over, or that your Orator be at liberty to surcharge ... the same."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
