20885412https://dlas.uncg.edu/petitions/petition/20885412LouisianaEast Baton RougeParish851854District851854Districtparatially granted209East Baton Rouge Parish, Clerk of Court Archives, Baton Rouge, LouisianaJane Cockerham and her husband, Samuel Brown, seek to recover an eight-year-old slave named Barton belonging to William Thomas Oats, Jane’s minor son from a first marriage. They represent that William Thomas Oats inherited Barton and his mother Harriet from the estate of his late father, Henry Oats. Henry Oats had himself received Barton and Harriet from his mother, Nancy Oats. Barton, however, is now being held by one Peter Oneal, administrator of Nancy Oats’s estate, notwithstanding the fact that a recent order of the court has decreed Harriet the property of William Thomas Oats and that Barton, a child under the age of ten, cannot be separated from his mother. Oneal has recently applied to the court to be discharged from his administrative functions, alleging that there is no property to administer in Nancy Oats’s estate. “From these facts” Jane and Samuel Brown have concluded and fear that Oneal may remove Barton from the jurisdiction of the court. They want Barton to be sequestered and seek an order directing Oneal to deliver Barton and to pay the value of his hires, which they assess at $3 per month, from the time of Henry Oats’s death in 1852.Hiring value (enslaved)Title dispute (enslaved)Enslaver (minors)Family separated (Black)Family kept together (Black)