Mary Williamson, widow and executrix of the late Chestian Williamson, asks the court to confirm her title in eight slaves in order to protect them from being held liable for her late husband's debts. The title confusion stems from an arrangement she worked out with Ainsley Hall, who held an 1817 mortgage on the slaves then belonging to her late husband. In order to pay Chestian's debt to Hall, the Williamsons agreed to relinquish Mary's inheritance right to "several valuable" slaves in Georgia, provided that Ainsley set aside the mortgaged slaves for Mary's sole use and benefit. After Chestian died in 1823, Mary paid the full balance due Hall "out of her own private funds." Hall then directed her to transfer her claim to the Georgia slaves to Claiborne Clifton. Hall died shortly thereafter, and his executors will not honor his "covenant" with Mary. Multiple creditors are now pressing suit against Mary for her late husband's debts, and she seeks an injunction to stay proceedings until her title to the mortgaged slaves is confirmed by the court. If the court should choose not to confirm the title, she asks that the transfer of the Georgia property be set aside.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
