Abram Jones, executor of William F. Goodwyn's estate, asks that several sales from the estate be confirmed. Jones recounts that he and John Howell, the other executor, discovered that the property not specifically bequeathed to anyone was "insufficient" to pay the estate's debts. He reminds the court that he and Howell petitioned the court in 1823 for instructions about which devised property to sell. At the February 1824 term, the court gave them permission to sell any of the real or personal property except "five house servants." The executors decided to sell one of Goodwyn's plantations, Heatly Grove, and "about fifty negroes." Jones paid $6.75 per acre for the land, but he later received a higher bid from John Thompson and agreed to let Thompson "have the benefit of his bid." Jones also bought forty of the slaves. He reports that one slave named Daniel "was absent from the District at the time of the sale in consequence as your petitioner understood of a crime he had committed which rendered it unsafe for him to venture into the District." Jones, however, considered Daniel "a valuable fellow" and offered $600 for him. Unfortunately, the said Howell died before the bills of sale and legal titles were completed and conveyed. Abram Jones prays for permission to convey the title to Heatly Grove to John Thompson and for confirmation of his own purchases.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
