Susanna Stone Franklin, widow of Benjamin Franklin, seek to recover a slave named Hetty along with Hetty's children. She informs the court that her grandmother, Mary Maples, bequeathed to her "a negro girl and her increase" in her 1793 will. The petitioner points out that she married Benjamin Franklin and that in February 1810 her husband "without the privity or consent of your Oratrix permitted the said negro wench Hetty and her child to go into the possession of one John M. Creyton ... in whose possession they have remained ever since." Noting that the said Benjamin died in 1820, Susanna attests that "she has in a friendly manner applied to the said John M. Creyon to deliver up to your Oratrix the said negro wench Hetty and her children" but Creyon "claims them as his own property." The petitioner therefore prays that the defendant may set forth "the number, names, ages and Sex" of Hetty's children and that he "be compelled to deliver up the said negro wench and her increase and to account to your Oratrix for their use and hire from the time of the death of the said Benjamin Franklin."
Result: Granted pro confesso.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
