Michael McKearnes asks the court to compel John Cashman to settle with him for "stock in trade, negroes monies Bonds notes Books of account" and other property belonging to their copartnership in Charleston. The business, originally built in 1804 with McKearnes's capital as a boarding house to sell liquor and groceries to seamen, expanded its operations four years later when the pair won a prize of $10,000 in the "East Bay Lottery." They used the money to buy a ship "which they fitted out and loaded with a cargo for the African trade." McKearnes set sail for Africa, undertaking the "very disagreeable and dangerous office" of supercargo on the ship, and left Cashman with "some negroes belonging to the concern" to run the business. While McKearnes was away, Cashman falsified the books, advertised, sold, and liquidated the business, and collected all the debts owing thereto "without advising with or consulting your orator." The petitioner asks the court to rectify these "acts of violence and cunning" by ordering Cashman to settle their accounts.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
