[Georgia, Probate Records, 1742-1990, images,
FamilySearch, Hancock - Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N - image 80 of 376; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]
And lastly it is express will and desire and I do hereby
order and appoint that if any dispute difference question
or controversy be moved or arise concerning any gift or
bequathed or thing in this my last Will given and bequeathed
expressed or contained that no suit in law of equity or otherwise
shall be brought for and concerning the same but that it be
refered to my friends Joel Crofford and James Thomas of
Sparta and what determined shall be binding and conclus-
ive to all
it is my wish that my mother Elizabeth Warren Sr. shall
have one choice mule.
Also it is my wish that the support for the first year
to be reserved at the Parker place for said negroes--
also it is my wish that my negroe woman Amey
shall have fifty dollars to be paid when the final division
takes place aso two sous and bigs to be applied for the
use of the above negroes at the Parker place.
Jeremiah Warren
It's clear from this final provision Jeremiah knew he had put items in his will that were likely to cause trouble so he named two of his friends whom he wanted to make the final, binding decisions.
What can we find out about these men?
James Thomas (c.1799-1866) was born in Hancock County and became a successful lawyer whose law practice was based in Sparta. In the 1830 U.S. Census the entry for the Hancock County household of James Thomas lists 4 free white persons: 1 male 20-30, 1 male 30-40, 1 female under 5 years of age and 1 female 20-30. There are also 8 enslaved persons for a total of 12 people.
Joel Crawford's* entry in the same census lists a household comprised of 100 persons, 5 free white persons: 1 male 40-50 and 2 little boys under 5, a female 30-40 and a young girls under 5; of the the 95 slaves, nearly half were under the age of 10.
by Johnson, Rossiter, 1840-1931, ed; Brown, John Howard, 1840-1917, ed. Published 1904.
Source: Archive.org digitized from the collections of the New York Public Library.]
And at times Mr. Crawford served as a Justice of the Hancock County Inferior Court:
["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch, Hancock > Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N > image 30 of 376; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]
By choosing these two prominent men in the community that he called his friends Jeremiah was probably hoping that his final wishes would be respected.
*Since the transcriber of the original document into the probate record underlined words that were misspelled and Crofford was partially underlined, when I didn't find anyone with that surname in the 1830 enumeration for Hancock County I tried Crawford and hit gold.
© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
I believe am a descendant of Jeremiah Warren's slaves probably the Mary
ReplyDeletein his will. Her descendants end up in east Texas. But I would like to point out that probate records show the Coleman and Mary were two different people.
Even though there's no separating comma I thought that they probably were two different people. Thank you for confirming it, Marco. Do you know how and when your ancestors arrived in east Texas?
DeleteThey came to Texas with John Graybill in the mid 1850's. Jeremiah's inventory list Mary's children as Sandal(female)Rhody(female)and Francis. Sandal and Rhody Warren appeared in the 1870 and 1880 census in Smith county Texas near John Graybill. A slightly older woman named Mary Warren also appears in 1870 and 1880 near the Graybill's.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! Thank you so much for that info, Marco. We have wondered for the past few years what happened to Mary. I'd love to know anything else you have on her. This so exciting! :-)
DeleteMarco, thank you for sharing this! As Christine says, we've wondered what the future held for those seven people and I'm glad to know that at least three of them were finally free.
DeleteNot much else, if she is the Mary Warren that lived next door to the Graybill's in 1870 she live to enjoy 15 or 20 years of freedom.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's way more than I knew before you posted. I'm glad she had at least some freedom in life. Was this in Cass County? Jeremiah Warren's nephew Jesse TS Warren (our ancestor) moved to Cass County in 1852.
DeleteLOL Nevermind, you said Smith County, I should probably think before I post.
DeleteCensus records say Mary was born around 1809 in Virginia. She started having children in the mid 1820's. Mary had many other children after Jeremiah death. Thanks so much for posting the will. I had never seen it before. Now I know why she stayed with John Graybill. It nice to know that Jeremiah Warren cared how his slaves were treated.
ReplyDeleteSo she was quite young when the Jeremiah Warren's will thing was going on, about 23. I wonder what her particular relationship was with Jeremiah. Do you know if she had any of his children? Have you taken an autosomal test yet, are we cousins? I find it interesting that she was born in Virginia and yet was down in Georgia, I wonder at the specifics on that (was she bought or inherited). Do you have any stories about Mary (like personality) or a picture? I kind of wish you'd do a blog post on her :-)
ReplyDeleteOne of Mary's daughters is called mulatto. but no I just found out about Mary from the probate records A week before I contacted you. but for years I have suspected Sandal or Rhody to be my GGG Grandmother. I have no Idea why Graybill kept her.
Delete