Sam Houston petitions the court regarding the late Samuel Thompson's will, which provided for the emancipation of a "family of favorite negroes" after Thompson's death. If Texas laws presented "any insurmountable obstacle" to their liberation, Thompson directed that the slaves should be "removed from the republic to some country where their freedom could be recognised" and given "suitable provision" for their maintenance and support. Houston explains that Thompson gave the will to Cynthia, the slave family's matriarch, and never altered it. After Thompson's death, Burwell J. Thompson, the defendant and Thompson's son and sole heir, demanded that Cynthia give him Thompson's papers, including the "enveloped and sealed" will. Houston now charges that Burwell denies the existence of the will and has possibly destroyed it. Houston asks that Burwell Thompson be summoned and be compelled to relinquish all claim to the slaves and to deliver them over to him. He also requests that "a suitable person be appointed as a receiver" to have custody of the slaves while the case is pending. Thompson's answer relates a conversation held with his late father about the will, which Burwell characterized as "wretched" and "greatly calculated to cause this respondent to be murdered by his Negroes." One year later, Houston returns to court, attesting that the men are "notoriously solvent." He therefore prays that Thompson be "injoined & inhibited from any interfearance or medling with said slaves." Houston further requests that Nash be "injoined & inhibited from delivering over to said Burwell said slaves."
Result: Partially granted.
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Repository: East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
