Elizabeth Shaffer and Frederick J. Shaffer, executors of the late Frederick Shaffer, seek the sale of the decedent's plantation. They report that Shaffer's will directed that the 900 acres of land and the 105 slaves in his estate not be sold until his youngest child Decima, currently thirteen years old, attains her majority. Moreover, they assert that none of Shaffer's sons "has been brought up as a planter or is at all acquainted with that business," since the late Shaffer managed said plantation "wholly by himself ... with the assistance of an overseer." Shaffer's executors and heirs both fear that they would undertake such management "with much diffidence and great misgiving of success ... and would with still greater reluctance have its management in the hands of an overseer during the long period which must elapse before a division of the estate." Shaffer's will also directs the executors to pay each child $2000 from the proceeds of the estate, "as it can be spared;" currently, said proceeds amount to "considerably less than seven thousand dollars a year." The petitioners state that they have contracted with Charles Alston Sr. to purchase said plantation for $50,000. They therefore pray the court to confirm said offer and "furthermore to direct a sale at auction of the negroes on the plantation."
Result: Granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
