Eliza Anne Neil, formerly the widow of John G. Barber, joins her current husband, John J. Neil, in stating that John Barber died in 1842, leaving Eliza and a son named James as his only “heirs at law;” James was appointed administrator of his father’s estate. Desirous to avoid the “trouble & expenses” of legal proceedings, James and Eliza, who had by then married Neil, agreed in 1844 to an amicable division of the estate, which consisted of slaves and real property. The division agreement divided the slaves and the real property equally between the two parties. The Neils contend, however, that James stole Squire, one of their slaves, and kept a slave named Venus, with their "consent." Furthermore, as the late Barber's estate was in debt, James directed the seizure of eight of their slaves and the plantation that they had received as their share of the estate. They charge that James intends to sell both the slaves and land to satisfy the estate’s creditors. The petitioners therefore pray that James Barber, as well as the estate’s creditors and the sheriff of the district, be summoned and that Barber be compelled to account for his administration of the estate, to live up to the terms of the property division, and to return their two slaves.
Result: Granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
