Jane Lowry, widow of James M. Lowry, seeks her share of her late husband's estate. She avows that said James died possessed of considerable “Real and personal” acquired by his marriage to her; however, her bequest in his 1836 will was only “some very inconsiderable personal property.” She reveals that James devised three fourths of his estate to his illegitimate daughter, Louisa Lowry Bradley, and to his illegitimate son, James Jackson Lowry. The will directed that Louisa and her husband, John Bradley, were to “clothe maintain and educate” her brother until he came of age. Jane protested Louisa's and James's bequest on the ground that the “devisees” were illegitimate, and the court voided that portion of the will; John Bradley became administrator of said estate. Jane now questions Bradley's improper administration of the estate. For example, she charges that he sold ten slaves below market value in Alabama and that three estate slaves are not listed in the inventory. She prays that Bradley and James Lowry be summoned; that Bradley be ordered to give a full account of the estate property, including the slave Eliza and her two children; that he give a detailed account of all expenses incurred in supporting, maintaining, and educating Louisa and James, who lived in her household.; and that she receive one moiety of the three fourths "of the whole estate" devised to Louisa and James and that it be "vested in your oratrix."
Result: Granted pro confesso.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
