Elizabeth Greene asks the court to settle the estate of her husband, Zachius Greene, deceased. She writes that prior to their marriage in 1827 the couple agreed "that as each one had brought into the matrimonial union about an equal share of property ..., that upon the death of each other the survivor was to be entitled to one half the estate left," and that the lawful heirs "should be entitled to the other half." Zachius died on 11 August 1844. The petitioner charges that Samuel Robert Grigsby, the son of Zachius's daughter by a previous marriage, took advantage of Zachius's failing memory and induced him to draw up deeds of gift giving Samuel and his siblings "an undue and unreasonable share of his property." Elizabeth states that she never saw these "pretended" deeds, designed "in fraud and with the intent to defeat her of her just marital rights," until Samuel M. Grigsby, the guardian of his children, showed them to her after her husband's death. The petitioner points out that he "now has the slaves in his possession," and intends to disburse a portion of them to Mississippi and keep a portion "for the use & benefit of his said children." Elizabeth Greene asks the sheriff to take the slaves into custody until the defendants post bond, and that if they should default on such security, return the slaves to her until the suit is resolved.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Sumter County Courthouse, Livingston, Alabama
