Barsheba and John Burns ask the court to invalidate a deed and award them their shares of Thomas Burns' estate. Barsheba was Burns' second wife, and John is their son. Before Thomas Burns died in 1833, he deeded all of his property, including land and thirteen slaves, to three children from his first marriage. The petitioners contend that Thomas' mental state disqualified him from disposing of his property. Thomas was more than ninety years old, "and like most other persons who have arrived at that advanced stage of life had become jealous childish, suspecting and easily practiced on." In the last eight months of his life, he said that "he had never been married to" Barsheba and treated her cruelly, finally driving her from their home. At this time, Thomas' older children used "fraudulent and unjustifiable reasons & pretences" to persuade him to give them his property. This action left "an aged and infirm widow who had been his constant and undeviating friend" without any means of support. The petitioners ask the court to nullify the deed of gift, to order the defendants to account for Burns' property and their use of it, and to divide the property among all the rightful heirs, giving Mrs. Burns her dower.
Result: Partially granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
