Friday, December 2, 2016

From the Probate files: Jeremiah Warren Part 11, Hire of Negroes Belonging to the Estate, 1833

As executors of Great Uncle Jeremiah's will, John Graybill and Jesse G. Butts were required to report to the probate court annually. The excerpt from probate records shown below accounts for 14 of Jeremiah's enslaved persons who were hired out for the year 1833.

["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-30371-14244-60?cc=1999178 : 20 May 2014), Hancock > Wills and administration records 1831-1840 vol N >
image 153 of 376; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]



Hire of Negroes belonging to the estate of Jeremiah Warren dec'd
     for 1833 to wit,
     John Graybill            Man Jack                         $80.00
     Benjamin Harper          do Edmund                    70.00
     William Warren            do Hal                            75.00
     Eppes Warren               do Meredith                   75.00
     Prestley Harper            do Anderson                   70.00
     Wyatt Harper               do Dave                          70.00
     William Warren    Women Lucy & Lethe           60.00
     Chloe Roe                     do Amey & 3 children  20.00
     William Stembridge  Man Abram                      50.00
     William Warren             do Tom (insane) for food & clothing -----
                                                                              $570.00
Georgia Hancock County
     John Graybill & Jesse G. Butts Exec. of E. of Jerem-
iah Warren dec'd. being duly sworn says that the within
acct. of the hiring of the negroes belonging to the estate
of said de'cd for the year 1833 is just & true.
Sworn to & subscribed before
me this 29th. May 1833   }             John Graybill
    Henry Rogers C.C.O.  }             Jesse G. Butts


Below are the appraised values of these enslaved persons taken from the inventory of Jeremiah's estate which had been filed with the probate court on September 25, 1832.

Amy    [a woman & her]  four  [children]  Matt Caroline Joby & Mason*    1000.00
Abram a man                                                            400.00
Tom a man                                                                  50.00
Lucy " woman                                                          250.00
Letha  "  girl                                                             400.00
Dave a man                                                              575.00
Meredith a man                                                         600.00
Hal a man                                                                  575.00
Edmund a man                                                          600.00
Jack     "      "                                                             600.00

Jeremiah's brother William Warren agreed to provide food and clothing Tom who's described as "insane" which would explain why the man's appraised value was the lowest on the list.

Most of the people named as hirers are familiar ones--family** and neighbors who we've seen buying items from Jeremiahs' estate but there's a new one: Chloe Roe as her name is written here.***

Chloe Roe (1763-1845) was the widow of Revolutionary War veteran John Roe (although her application for a widow's pension was denied). The couple were early settlers in Hancock County and their farmhouse, built in 1804, still survives and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was moved from its original location to Milledgeville in Baldwin County in the early 1980s.




[The John Roe House-Specht Farm. Photos from its Facebook page]


So this is a house that Amey and her children would have seen, at least from the outside, during the year they were hired by Mrs. Roe.




*There's no indication which of Amey's four children wasn't included here and why not. You may recall that Jeremiah's codicil stated, "also it is my wish that my negroe woman Amey shall have fifty dollars to be paid when the final division takes place" so although she wasn't one of the seven people he hoped to see freed he did single her out for a bequest.
**I can't help wondering how Jeremiah, who didn't want his nephew Eppes Warren to benefit from the sale of any of his human property, would have responded to Eppes being allowed to hire Meredith for 1833.
***Alternate spellings include Row or Rowe.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

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