Lewis and John Featherston, executors of John Wesley Featherston, seek a partition of the estate of their late father. They inform the court that their father died in 1858, leaving thirty-two slaves and more than 1100 acres of land to his ten children. His will directed that his executors sell three of his slaves, Drucilla, Sarah and Ceely, and use the proceeds therefrom to pay his debts; the other slaves would be distributed among his children when they reached twenty-one years of age or married. Featherston's will also included provisions to ensure that slave families would not be separated. However, the petitioners claim that they are unable to keep the estate together as their father had directed. They aver that the lands are poor, many of the slaves are old, and "most of the females are barren and unproductive." The petitioners fear that any attempt to carry out the provisions of the will "will prove abortive and disastrous to the interests of the devisees." They conclude that a sale of the land and slaves will be most beneficial to the legatees and ask the court to authorize a partition of the estate. [The petition is missing its fourth page.]
Result: Granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
