Simon and Eliza Maria Taylor ask the court to recognize Eliza's right of title to nine slaves, to restore them to her possession, and also to grant them compensation for the slaves' hire in the time they have been detained. The slaves were originally purchased for Eliza in 1791 by the executor of her late father's estate, William Ransom Davis, to be held in trust for her eventual use. Davis purchased the slaves from the estate of Jared Nelson via Sheriff Wade Hampton. The slaves remained in Davis's possession, but they were included on the bill of sale of another slave purchased by Anne Davis (now Bay) at the same sale. Seven or eight years later, Hampton approached Anne Bay and asked her to sell the same slaves and their increase to John Mayrant and him, to be kept in trust for Davis's children. Bay refused, but her husband, William, now the "legal owner" of the slaves, consented after swapping "without any consideration" Anne's slave for one of the nine belonging to Eliza Taylor. Eliza explains that these transactions were "veiled in much mystery and studiously concealed" from her. Calling the bill of sale "a flagrant violation" of her rights, she seeks relief.
Result: Granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
