Thomas Wooten, executor of the will of Peggy Coleman, seeks permission to sell an estate slave named Mariah in order to discharge the estate's debts. He also asks the court "to construe said Will as to the time of distribution of the surplus" of the estate's assets. Wooten explains that Coleman's will directed that Mariah "should go to" her sister and her sister's husband, "for the special purpose that they should take her niece Martha Jane Douglas, and raise and educate her." The couple was to keep Mariah until Martha Jane became of age, married, or died. Adding that they "have failed to take said slave upon the terms mentioned in said Will," Wooten asks to sell Mariah in order to make a distribution of the proceeds "amongst those entitled under the will." Included in the packet are depositions and a decree in the 1860 case of minor Martha Jane Douglass versus A. H. King, in which Douglass seeks compensation for Mariah's hire during the years 1846-1860. The depositions with the petition estimate her hire at an average of $40 a year over the four-year span.
Result: Granted.
Or you may view all people.
Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee
