From the Probate files: Jeremiah Warren Part 10, Receipt for Bequest to Martha & William Warren

If you've been following my journey through the probate files for my fourth great uncle Jeremiah Warren, you may recall that he bequeathed to the orphans of his brother James (1790-1820) two young enslaved persons.

["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch, Hancock > Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N > image 78 of 376; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]

Item 6th. I give to Martha Warren one Negroe boy named William
and to William Warren son of James Warren dec'd one negroe
boy named Robbin.

Their guardian acknowledged receipt of these two boy on December 22, 1832, along with five enslaved people who had formerly been the property of James Warren.*

["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-30371-14370-70?cc=1999178 : 20 May 2014), Hancock > Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N > image 209 of 376;

county probate courthouses, Georgia.]

Georgia Hancock County.

     Received   John Graybill and Jess G Butts Exrs of

the last Will and testament of Jeremiah Warren late of said

County dec'd. negroes Robin & William they being Negroes bequeathed

by said dec'd to Martha & William Warren Orphans of James Warren

dec'd also a negro man sam a woman Milly boys George

Henry & Burwell they being negroes belonging to the Estate

of said James Warren dec'd. In consideration whereof I hereby

bind myself my heirs and assigns to bear the said John & 

Jesse their heirs and assigns free and harmless clear of any

further liability to said Orphans of James Warren dec'd. for said 

negroes this 22nd of December 1832.

                                                               Jno. Brown Grde for

                                                              Martha & Wm. Warren

William Silas Warren was 16 and his sister a year younger at the time of Jeremiah's death. William was the first to marry (1837) and had moved to Tallapoosa County, Alabama, with his growing family by 1839. And that's where Martha married Elijah Carter in 1841 and they remained in Alabama until at least 1856. By 1860 the Carters were living in Wood County, Texas, and don't seem to every have been very prosperous.

In the 1840 U.S. Census William's entry listed 9 slaves in his household but it's impossible to know whether any of the enslaved people named in the above receipt were among them. Ten years later he listed "Personal Property" of $2000 which most likely represented his human property and in 1860 we have the Slave Schedule from the U.S. Census in which he listed 27 individuals (which he valued at $15,600).**

[Township : Beat 7. Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.]

William died in 1863 about a month before my great great great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips but unfortunately if there are any probate records associated with his estate, they're not available online.

So we're left wondering what happened to William, Robin, Sam, Milly, George, Henry and Burwell.

*From the wording of the receipt, it appears that Graybill and Butts had been responsible for the slaves of James Warren before that date.

**Here's the entry in the 1860 U.S. Census:

[Year: 1860; Census Place: Beat 7, Tallapoosa, Alabama; Roll: M653_25; Page: 3; Image: 5; Family History Library Film: 803025. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

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