Cornelius and Elizabeth Weatherly seek to protect Elizabeth's remainder interest in property currently in the possession of her mother, Louisa Mason. They state that Samuel Pate, the grandfather of said Elizabeth, conveyed six slaves and a tract of land in Alabama to John McInnis in 1845, to be held in trust for Pate's daughter and son-in-law, Louisa and John Mitchel. The deed of trust directed that the property would pass to Louisa's children upon the Mitchels' deaths; the Mitchels had two daughters, Elizabeth and Florence. After John Mitchel died, Louisa married John Mason, and the couple had a son named James. Shortly thereafter, John Mason died, and Samuel Pate died in 1854, leaving Louisa an additional 15 slaves. In 1856 Louisa moved to South Carolina, where she has been renting land and farming; she intends to sell the land in Alabama and purchase land in Marlborough District. The Weatherlys charge that Louisa Mason has poorly managed her affairs and that the land she plans to purchase in Marlborough is of poorer quality than the Alabama land. They also assert that "the food & clothing of the negroes [are] inferior; that no overseer at all is employed to take charge of them, & that persons known to be harsh & severe are often called in to inflict punishment for the most trivial offences by reason whereof some one or more of them are often lying in the woods as runaways suffering for food & raiment." Hoping to protect their remainder interest in said property, they ask that a trustee be appointed to hire out the slaves, paying an annual sum to said Louisa, and that the property be divided among Louisa's children after her death.
Result: Partially granted; dismissed.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
