Louisiana Banks Reid seeks the allotment of her dower and the recovery of sundry slaves. She asserts that her husband, James Banks, died in 1835, seized of a sizeable estate. In addition, Reid reveals that her father had conveyed eleven slaves to her in 1822 and that "it was the intention of her father to convey said negroes to her seperate use, free from the control of her husband ... to the only proper use of her and her issue." She charges that David Campbell, her late husband's executor, "has taken possession of the whole estate," including the "negroes of your oratrix." She further argues her late husband's will "is partial and unjust towards her and gives her less by far than she would be entitled to by law (if it is intended by said will to exclude her from her dower in her said husbands estate)." She notes that her current husband, Thomas Reid, "has deserted her and removed out of the United states," but "it was agreed in writing between them that she should have and hold her estate both real and personal ... to her own seperate use." Reid prays that the court may "assign and set apart her dower in her husband's real estate;" that she may receive "a childs part of the personalty of her deceased husbands estate;" and that she may have "all the negroes given to her by her father ... with their increase."
Result: Granted; appealed.
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Repository: Williamson County Courthouse, Franklin, Tennessee
