John Shealy, administrator of the estate of the late Lydia Dunkin [Duncan] Stephens, seeks the court's assistance in securing a slave belonging to the estate of Lydia's late father, John Dunkin [Duncan], who died around 1805. Shealy explains that the executor of Dunkin's will, Abel Dunkin, arranged with Dunkin's widow, Margaret, to give the widow $200 worth of estate property and a life estate in a slave named Ned in exchange for her promise not to contest Dunkin's will. The will directed that Dunkin's property be sold and the residue be divided equally among his nine children. Most of the children have "removed from this State many years since," and many of them are presumed dead. Margaret Dunkin recently passed away, leaving two sons as her only heirs. The boys have "divided her property among them without obtaining any grant of administration on her estate." Shealy, who recently learned that they permit Ned "to go at large without exerting any control over him," fears that, if the heirs will not safely "keep and take care of the said negro until he can be properly delivered over for the use of your orator and the other persons entitled in remainder," then Ned may be "carried without the limits of the State to the detriment of your orator." He asks the court to intervene so that Ned can be sold "according to the directions of the said will and the profits of his labour" will not be lost to the heirs.
Result: Granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
