Nathaniel Drake, a minor petitioning through his next friend, Alfred Drake, asks the court to compel his former guardian, Benjamin C. Drake, to compensate him for "whatever estate of his has come, or might, by due diligence, have come into" his hands. The petitioner explains that Drake has never rendered an account of his guardianship since his appointment in 1835. Before he recently "withdrew himself from the state," Benjamin sold his plantation and other property, and conveyed to the possession of other men several of his slaves, in order "to defeat and defraud your orator of his just demand upon him." A partial list of said property includes: "the said slaves Caroline and Squire ... in the hands of said [William] Chandler; and the slaves Sylva and children in the hands of the said Elisha Reeves; and the said slaves Charles and Mary and the four head of horses and fifty barrels of corn in the custody of Charles." Benjamin also "falsely pretended ... to set said Charles free." The petitioner now asks the court to attach the property and to appoint a receiver endowed "with power to dispose of it," so that the proceeds can be applied "towards satisfaction of your Orator's said demand."
Result: Partially granted; reversed; dismissed.
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Repository: Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County Archives
