William Eckells and Charles Hurst seek to settle a slave title dispute. Joseph Hasfort's 1798 will stipulated that his children would hold a life interest in their inheritance and that the property would pass "after their deaths ... to the heirs of their Bodies for ever." Hasfort's daughter Hannah married Thomas Pendarvis, who assumed possession of her estate. Pendarvis mortgaged eleven of her slaves in 1756 to secure a loan of £550; unable to repay the loan, Pendarvis in 1757 arranged with Robert Eckells, the petitioner's father, to pay the debt in exchange for three slaves. Two of Hannah's children, Sarah Williams and Thomas Pendarvis, decried that their father had no legal right to sell the slaves. In the 1790s, Sarah Williams agreed with Jonathan Hughes "to obtain and get the possession of part of the negro Slaves;" he took Priscilla and three other slaves. In 1795 William Eckells sold four slaves to Charles Hurst, one of them being the same Priscilla. In 1798, Eckells paid Sarah Williams and Thomas Pendarvis £190 to recognize his title to the slaves. Sarah agreed to administer her late husbands' estates so Eckells and Hurst could sue Hughes in her name to recover the slaves, but she now refuses to abide by the agreement. Hughes still holds the four slaves and two children born since the dispute started and is about to leave the state. Eckells and Hurst ask that Hughes be prevented from leaving the state; that he be required to account for the work of the disputed slaves since he took custody of them; that the slaves be impounded until the suit is resolved; that Williams be compelled to honor their agreement; and that Hughes "set forth his title, claim or pretensions" to the slaves so the court can determine ownership.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
