Welcome Spears and his wife, Mary Rush Spears, seek a partition of slaves. The Spearses, who reside in Florida, remind the court that Mary's sister, Martha Rush Ray, petitioned with her husband, Benjamin Ray, on 15 February 1861, for the division of twenty-one slaves held in common by the children of Elizabeth Daniells Rush. They state that Mary's mother, Elizabeth, inherited said slaves from her father, Sem Daniells, who had conveyed a life interest in eleven slaves in 1837 to his wife, Mary Agnes; upon Mary Agnes's death, the slaves and their future issue were to pass to his daughters, Mary R. Daniells Rice and Elizabeth Daniells Rush, and then to his grandchildren. They report that Elizabeth Rush died in 1860, whereby "the surviving children of the said Elizabeth J Rush and each of them is now entitled to one twelfth part and portion of the said slaves." They avow that they have learned that the said Rays "have let drop their said bill of complaint" and have consulted "their attorney to sell the said slaves at auction." They further aver that "they both greatly desire the part or portion of the said slaves to which your oratrix is entitled, may be settled ... in trust for her sole and separate use for life." The petitioners therefore pray that Martha Ray and the other heirs be enjoined from selling the said slaves at public auction and that said slaves be partitioned and distributed among Elizabeth Rush's heirs.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
