In 1852, Thomas J. Lawrence died leaving a widow, Emerald Lawrence, and nine children. His widow, also the administratrix of his estate, has returned her first account of the estate in which she owes the estate a balance of over two thousand dollars. Lawrence's personal estate, which totals $3,705.80, consists of "almost entirely negroes." The estate's debts total about $3,000. Emerald and the other petitioners believe that settling the debts "would not only require the sale of the entire personal property ... but also a sale of" one of two parcels of land in the estate. The slaves are women and children "to whom the family are greatly attached, are yearly increasing in value, very necessary to the comfort of all the children of the said testator, and without them it would be impossible to make a support for the family on either or both parcels." The petitioners prefer that a parcel of land be sold to satisfy the debt rather than the slaves and ask the court to permit that substitution.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
