In 1827, Georgia slave owner Moses Walker executed a deed whereby he secured to his daughter Maria a separate estate "free from the marital right of her then present or any future husband." However, the lawyer who prepared the document failed to stipulate that the deed included property given to Maria other than by will, meaning property given to her during her father's lifetime. Over time, Moses Walker gave his daughter six slaves: Jacob, now about fifty, Ann, about forty, Dinah, twenty-eight, Beck, a woman about thirty, Louisa, about twenty-one, Ishmael about thirty-five. Since then, Beck has had a daughter named Jane, age eleven. In 1834, Maria married Captain Elisha Betts, and, three years later, they settled in Alabama. In 1843, though Elisha abandoned Maria, and the sheriff levied property left behind to satisfy his debts. Included in that property was the slave Ann. Maria Betts requests that the conveyances from her husband to creditors using her trust property as collateral be "set aside," that the creditors be perpetually enjoined from seizing any of her property, and that her trust estate be "reformed" to correspond with the intentions of her father. She also seeks a divorce and alimony.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Barbour County Clerk's Office, Clayton, Alabama
