Simeon Clark claims that he was born in New Jersey of a free woman of color named Pheby Clark. At the age of twelve or fourteen, "he was bound agreably to the laws of said state to one Joshua Austin till ... the age of 21 years." Austin took him to Ohio, then Illinois, where he sold him to Jeptha Lambkin for "the above named term of time he was to serve, & no more." Lambkin then sold him to Henry Carpenter, who held him for over ten years. Clark believes that Carpenter sold him about a week ago to a slave trader named Henry Keener. He "fled & has ever since secreted himself to avoid being taken off out of the State as a Slave." Clark asks for an order restraining the defendants from removing him from the jurisdiction of the court until the final trial of this suit. He further asks that the sheriff take him into custody unless the defendants post bond; he finally petitions that he be decreed a free man. After serving Carpenter for several years, the court decreed in 1835 that "Simeon Clark a man of Colour receive of the sd. Deft Carpenter his freedom forever & that he hence forth go free from the claim of sd. Carpenter and all others as a slave."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Kentucky Division of Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky
