Dr. A. B. Moore seeks an accounting of slaves and the nullification of a contract. In 1832, William Clark, “desiring to raise Some money,” applied to Moore to act as surety. Moore agreed and “took a mortgage of certain negros & other property.” Clark took out several notes throughout the 1830s and, “from time to time,” paid off portions of his debt. Moore further states that Josiah Kilgore, administrator of Hugh Bailey, took a confession of judgment from Clark for $6,738.36; by 1844, after several payments, the balance was $3,982. John T. Kirby purchased Kilgore's judgment, requiring Moore to pay it “as the Said Wm Clark the principal” payer was insolvent. Kirby proposed that, if Moore were to “assign his mortgage aforesaid to him with the Brooks judgment,” then he would relieve him of his financial obligations and “give him a negro woman & child worth five hundred and fifty dollars.” Moore agreed, not knowing that Kirby “had taken an assignment from said Clark” for $200 and 60 shares in the South Carolina Manufacturing Company. Kirby then secured Moore's mortgage, the Brooks judgment, and four slaves to the manifest injury of Moore, who is “very aged & infirm.” Moore asserts that Kirby practiced a “gross fraud” and requests that their agreement be declared void and that Kirby account for the mortgaged property, which includes slaves.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
