North Carolina, Supreme Court, Raleigh : Gillis and wife v Harris and Harris (executors), June 1862 [printed].
- Published
- Raleigh, North Carolina : North Carolina Supreme Court, 1862.
- Physical Description
- 1 online resource
- Additional Creators
- Adam Matthew Digital (Firm) and North Carolina. Division of Archives and History
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- Series
- Summary
- This suit was brought against the defendants, the executors, to recover a legacy of three small negroes given to the plaintiff Mrs Sarah Gillis in the will of her father Robert Harris. He died in Person county in 1847, but problems arose as some aspects of the will were badly framed and the testator's intentions were not set out clearly. Whatever the testator had intended, the Supreme Court had to go by the general principles of the law. It decreed that the plaintiffs were entitled to the value of the three small slaves, to be fixed two years after the death of the testator, with interest from that date. Four slaves, Dice, Jenny, Peggy and Jacob, were given in the will with other property and items to Sarah Gillis, the daughter, in addition to the three small negroes. The son, William Harris, received 6 slaves, including Linda, just over 273 acres of land and some animals. The son Lawson Harris got 300 acres of land. The son Robert Harris got 7 slaves and some other items as well as 600 acres of land. The will left many slaves, livestock and land to the testator's wife, Sarah Harris. The will then went on to deal with other land, some 150 acres and a further 640 acres, and how this was to be divided. There was some potential conflict between different clauses of the will. William and Robert, the two sons appointed as executors had to sort this out. There was much litigation as a result. The defendants unsuccessfully tried to resist the claim concerning the 3 slave children by arguing that this claim had been settled whilst the testator was still alive by the conveyance of some slaves to the children of Mrs Gillis, who was living in Cass county in Georgia. The conveyance was by a bill of sale dated 7 November 1845 for the slaves called Lizzie, Easther Susan, William and Thomas, and any further increase. Lizzie, the mother, had been accused of burning a tobacco barn, but the charge was compromised by the master consenting to send the woman out of the State. She was first sent to Virginia and then she, and her three children, were sent to Daniel Gillis, one of the children of Sarah Gillis.
- Subject(s)
- Other Subject(s)
- Reproduction Note
- Electronic reproduction. Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2007. Digitized from a copy held by the North Carolina State Archives.
- Location of Originals
- North Carolina State Archives
- Copyright Note
- Material sourced from the North Carolina State Archives
View MARC record | catkey: 41990083