In April, 1810, petitioner Samuel Grahame agreed to buy the slave Lurena and her three children, Ruth, Mary and Ellen, from Denton Hammond, giving Hammond his "single bill" for $170. Lurena was to serve a five-year term; the children were to serve until they each reached age 29. The slaves were a bequest to Denton Hammond from the estate of Rezin Hammond "who willed them by his last testament to said Denton until they should arrive at the age of thirty years respectively." In 1812, two years after the sale, Lurena petitioned and gained her freedom, on the grounds that she was 30 years old at the time of Rezin Hammond's death. The court also granted freedom to Ellen on the grounds that she was born after her mother's emancipation. Hammond agreed to credit Grahame's note to reflect loss of the two slaves, but he had actually signed the note away to Larkin Shipley. Now Hammond has died, and Shipley has filed suit to collect on the full amount. Grahame asks the court for an injunction to stop Shipley's suit against him and for a hearing to settle the case.
Result: Granted; revoked.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
