The children and grandchildren of John Ashe ask the court to sanction agreements that they have made to settle his estate. They explain that John Ashe's will directed his executors to keep the "planting Interest" of his rice and cotton plantation intact and working "so as to pay off and satisfy all the Debts and Legacies left by him;" the executors then are supposed to divide the 207 slaves among Ashe's children. The petitioners further state that the debts and legacies of the estate are "between Sixty and Seventy thousand Dollars." After working the plantation for two years, the heirs and executors decided it would take years to pay the claims, and, "in case of any accident to the negroes, this delay might operate much to the injury" of everyone. They therefore devised a plan to pay the claims more quickly. The heirs will cede their shares of the estate to John A. S. Ashe, who will take all responsibility for paying the debts and legacies by sale of estate property or out of his own property, thus disregarding the terms of the will. The petitioners ask the court to confirm these agreements and to compel executor John A. S. Ashe to abide by the same.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
