Widow Eliza Seymour Lee asks the court to nullify a conveyance of property prepared by trustee Henry Gourdin. In 1823 the petitioner and her future husband, John Lee, a free person of color, placed a Charleston "lot of land with a tenament building" in a marital trust for their mutual benefit with the provision that if John Lee died, then his wife would enjoy sole benefit of the rents from that property. Henry Gourdin became trustee of this real estate in 1857 after the two previous trustees had died. In 1861, the petitioner left South Carolina "and did not return until the close of the late war." During her absence, Gourdin sold the property to Cornelius J. Dunham for $3200 "in the so called Confederate Currency." The petitioner charges that this transaction "was made not only without the written consent or approbation of your Oratrix, the cestui que trust, as required by the deed, duly of record but without her knowledge or assent." Eliza Seymour Lee therefore requests that the court nullify this conveyance and return it to her control.
Result: Partially granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
