Samuel Caruthers complains that his two nephews, Samuel and Thomas Love, "have taken advantage of his weakness of mind to perpetrate a gross & flagrant fraud upon him." Sixty-year-old Caruthers, a bachelor suffering from "frequent and long intervals of mental aberation," found himself incapable of attending to his business. He confides that he "fell a victim to the cupidity & avarice of a set of persons who beset him on all sides" and asserts that these "shylocks" "preyed upon his substance" like "vultures," reducing him "from a state of opulence to that of comparative poverty." Forced to "appeal to his kindred to protect him," Caruthers turned to the Loves, who came to his house and "manifested a strong desire to see him righted." The brothers "suggested" that they had, or could raise, enough money to pay Samuel's debts "& save his slaves from Executions." The latter point was Samuel's "most cherished desire," as he was "greatly attached" to his slaves and intended to emancipate them at his death. Instead, his nephews have made "a speculation out of your Orator," violated their agreement to support him, and "converted his property into money." They have sold most of the slaves and now refuse to supply him with the "necessaries of life" as they promised. Caruthers asks the court to take charge of any property his nephews have not yet squandered and "to manage the same for the Benefit of your orator." He further seeks writs of attachment and injunction to prevent them from selling said property and prays that he be "restored to all the rights he had" in his property before the Loves entered his home.
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: Maury County Historical Society Loose Records Project, Columbia, Tennessee
