Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 15, Final Settlement

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly happy to come to the end of this examination of the probate records for my 3X great grandmother Timeny P. Watts Warren Phillips. 

Timney died on September 5, 1863, by which time  Lee's invasion of the North had been turned back at Gettysburg (July 1-3), Vicksburg had fallen (July 4), the Mississippi River was in Federal control and the South was on the defensive.  Perhaps events during the months leading up to the Confederacy's final defeat in 1865 are part of the reason why it took 3-1/2 years for the final distribution  which took place in 1867.

Estate of
Timney P. Phillips

J.D. Phillips
     Admr

Final Settlement

Recorded Book 11 Page 353
     C.A. Stanton
          Judge of Probate

Filed in Office   Sinclair[?]
Feb 18th 1867

Set for 2nd Monday
April 1867--

C A Stanton
     Judge
R F Ligon

J D Phillips Admr of Timney
P. Phillips dec'd. in account
current for final Settlement

Admr charges himself as
follows----                       Dr[?]

To Amt of Sale of personal property
on the 15th day of December 1863
and which was in Confederate
Money-------------------     $12175.71

To amt of sale of Real estate
in the                                     $120.00
                                            12295.71

Admr ask to be Credited as following
                                                   Cr
By amt paid  R A Johnston {?]nd  1   394.68
 "     "       "    W D Hall                  2     47.60 
 "     "       "     T H Phillips             3     25.00
 "     "       "    W C Martin              4       6.75
 "     "       "    Henderson & Baith  5       5.00
 "     "       "    J W Webb & Co       6      23.20
 "     "       "    Taxes 1863               7      25.25
 "     "       "    R A Johnston           8     185.60
 "     "       "    R A Johnston           9       80.00                
 "     "       "    R A Johnston          10    200.00
 "     "       "    W H Hodnett          11    183.00
 "     "       "    Court Costs            12      54.00
 "     "       "    Attorneys fees        13      30.00

By amt of Confederate Money on hand 4015.63

[Description : Estate Papers, Phillips, Nancy (Minor) to Piques, Sarah. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

                             Amt brt forward
By amt paid A Lockwood Guard
=ian for Elizabeth A Lockwood as per recpt $1500.

By amt paid James O A Adams as
     per receipt on file            --------------     $1950

By amt paid Isabella Varner 
     as per receipt on file       --------------     $1950

By amt paid L B Phillips
     as per receipt on file       --------------     $1500


The State of Alabama          }
   Macon County                  } Personally appeared before C.A. Stanton
Judge of he probate Court J D Phillips Admr of Timney Phillips dec'd who being
duly sworn says that the foregoing account for final Settlement is just
true and Correct and that the heirs at law are, Thos H Phillips and 
your petitioner who reside in Macon Co Ala, W.R Phillips and L.B. Phillips who
reside in Geo, Josiah Phillips in Texas, Mary E Lane wife of 
Alexander Land in Barbour Co Ala, Martha Adams wife of  James O.
Adams in Pike Co Ala all of whom are of full age Elizabeth
Lockwood who resides               County Ala, also the children
of Thadeus Phillips dec'd, to wit, Elizabeth, Eugenie, Columbiana
and John H Philips who are minors and live in Georgia--
Sworn to & subscribed before me   }
22 January 1867  ------                      }       J.D. Phillips
   C A Stanton Judge of Probate


If I'm reading this correctly everyone received Confederate money which was worthless.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 14, The Second Commission

We've already looked at the November 1863 documents arising from the first Commission appointed by the Probate Court to determine whether some of the estate's property needed to be sold. Although it seemed clear that it did apparently nothing was settled because in 1866 another Commission was created. This time the Commissioners were R.T. Davis and John L. Carmichael and the witnesses to be examined were former Commissioner Wesley F. Hodnett and Henry Stanton who lived next to the property in question.

The interrogatories look pretty much the same (although the order is different and only eight acres are involved this time) which isn't surprising because they were written by one of the original lawyers, R.F. Ligon.

J.D. Phillips                        }         Probate Court
  Administrator of               }         Macon County
     Timney P. Phillips Est.  }
               v.                          }     Interrogatories to
 Heirs at Law.                     }     be propounded to
Wesley F. Hodnett and Henry Stanton
material witnesses for the Plaintiff in this
cause.

1st Intr.   Do you know the parties?

2nd Intr.  Do you know the following described
               land situated in Macon County to wit:
               Eight (8) acres off the East end of the South
               half (1/2) of section eighteen (18) Township
               fifteen (15) Range Twenty four (24) adjoining
               Dr. Hodnett and Henry Stanton?

3rd Intr. Do you know of the indebtedness of said
              Estate?

4th Intr. State if it is necessary to sell lands of
              said Estate to pay the debts.

                                                        R.F. Ligon
                                                        Atty. for Administrator

In my transcription of the pages below I've decided to only give the answers of the witnesses because I've hit the wall on this matter (and the handwriting is particularly hard to read).

Deposition of WH Stanton:

1st Int.    Do you know the parties. Ans. I do

2nd Int Do you know the following described land [...] Ans. 2nd I do

3rd Int  Do you know of the indebtedness of 

said Estate

     Ans. 3rd I do not 

4th Intr. State if it is necessary to sell lands
of said Estate to pay the debts
                                  Ans 4th Not knowing if any
debts I can't say.
                                     WH Stanton
25th day of Oct 1866 at WH Stanton store in the County of  Macon

[Estate Papers, Phillips, Nancy (Minor) to Piques, Sarah. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Deposition of W F Hodnett:

1st Int.    Do you know the parties.

Ans. I do

2nd Int Do you know the following

described land [...]?

Ans. I know the land referred to

3rd Int  Do you know of the indebtedness of 

said Estate [...]?

     Ans. I know of some indebtedness

          of said Estate which cannot be

          paid without selling the lands 

          above described.

4th State if it is necessary to sell lands

of said Estate to pay the debts?
 Ans. I consider it necessary as stated 
     in the last answer.
                                     WF Hodnett
25th day of Oct 1866 at WH Stanton store in the County of  Macon

The sale of these eight acres appears to have been the final obstacle to settling my great great great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips' estate. Next week we'll see who got what.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 11, Sorting Out the Male Heirs

You may recall in my last post that dealt with her probate records there was a list of heirs of Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips named in the depositions which included the names of eight individuals I didn't recognize: William R. (W.R.) Phillips, Josiah Phillips, Martha Adams, Mary Lane, and Elizabeth, Eugenia, Columbiana and John T. Phillips.

In my efforts to discover who these people were, I returned to the probate records for Timney's second husband, John P. Phillips (1792-1852) and found a list of his heirs filed by her attorneys* on July 15, 1852 in connection with her dower claims.

[Description : Probate Court Record, Vol 4, 1850-1853. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

where your petitioner Sheweth the following persons are the heirs and
legatees of said Estate Thomas H Phillips William A Phillips Frederick Phillips
Josiah Phillips Thadeus Phillips Mary E Lane wife of Alexander Lane &
Martha A Adams wife of James Adams all of whom are over the age of
twenty years -- also Jeremiah D Phillips Lucinda I Phillips Littleberry B Phillips
John C Phillips and Elizabeth Lockwood who are under the age of twenty
one. Your petitioner prays that your Honor upon the hearing of this petition
order and decree that her dower in Said lands be advanced and 
allotted to her in accordance with the statute in such cases [?] and
provided.                                  Timney Phillips
                                                  per Clopton & Ligon her attys

From this record we can confirm that William R and Josiah Phillips have to be added to the family tree along with Martha Adams** and Mary Lane. And two more sons have been revealed who weren't included in the later list--Frederick and Thad[d]eus.

From a later probate record (February, 1856) we can learn more about Frederick (1820-1855).

[Description : Estate Papers, Petteway, Ignatius W to Phillips, Nancy. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

The State of Alabama     {Personally appeared before me
   Macon County             {Linus Alexander Judge of Probate
when being duly  Thomas H Phillips admin of John Phillips dec'd
when being duly sworn says this [?] account for final
settlement is just & true and that the following persons are the heirs
at law & distributees[?] Timney P. Phillips widow of intestate
Thos. H Phillips admin, William R. Phillips, Mary P Josiah
Phillips, Thaddeus, Jeremiah D. Lucinda I Littleberry
B. & John C the last four of whom are minors and 
reside in Macon except Littleberry B. who lives in Geo.
and Mrs Mary Phillips & her child Nancy the widow
& only child of Frederick Phillips, and Elizabeth
Lockwood the only child of A. Lockwood & Elizabeth
Lockwood & that Affiant Swears that he had
not used for his own purposes any of the money ofor
said estate that he knows of-----

From the 1850 U.S. Census we can learn a bit more about Timney's stepson Frederick and his wife Mary.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 21, Macon, Alabama; Roll: M432_9; Page: 201A; Image: 25.

Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

As you can see in 1850 the couple had two children, Matilda and Simeon. Simeon died at 13 months old and is buried in the Fort Family Cemetery in Macon County; we don't know any more of his older sister than this census record but she must have died sometime before the 1856 list of heirs. Although I've found no supporting documentation, some believe that Mrs Mary Phillips was Mary A. Peteet (1832-1857) who was married to Menafee Tatum*** at the time of her death and is also buried in Fort Cemetery. Since little Nancy Phillips isn't mentioned in any of the lists of heir for Timney in 1863 she had probably joined the rest of her family in the local cemetery.


The other hitherto undiscovered stepson Thaddeus (1823-1857) and his wife Mary H. Slaughter (1828-1884) had three children by the time of the 1850 U.S. Census.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 21, Macon, Alabama; Roll: M432_9; Page: 233A; Image: 85. 

Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Since Thaddeus pre-deceased his stepmother, Mary Elizabeth (1844-1915), Francis G. Eugene (1847-1916), his only son John T. (1848-1884) and his youngest surviving child Columbia Ann (1856-1920) inherited their father's share of Timney's estate.

Stepson Josiah Phillips (c1822-aft1880) married Martha Ann Chappell (1826-1894)**** and they were living in Cass County, Texas, by 1854.

William R. Phillips (1818-1890) remained in Georgia where he and his wife Mary Smith Johnson (1859-1905) had 11 children. One of their younger daughter was named Nancy Timney Phillips, honoring both his birth mother Nancy Ann Pennington (1798-1826) and stepmother Timney.

Next week I'll present what I've learned about Mary and Martha.


*Her attorneys,Clopton & Ligon, were the same ones who set out the interrogatories for the Commission referred to in my previous post.
**Martha Norman Phillips was one of Timney's daughters.
***

Ancestry.com. Alabama, Marriages, Deaths, Wills, Court, and Other Records, 1784-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: Alabama Department of Archives and History, comp. Public information subject files—Card index of personal and corporate names and of subjects, ca. 1920–1960. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

****She is the granddaughter of John Chappell (c1763-1828) my fourth great grandfather, and therefore my first cousin, four times removed.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Timney P. Watts (1805 - 1863) - Probate Records, Part 9, A Petition, Not a Lawsuit (Yet)

I'm still sorting through various unindexed records for my fifth great grandmother Timney P. Watts Warren Phillips but below is a petition filed with the Probate Court on behalf of the heirs of her Phillips property in October of 1863.*

[Description : Probate Records, Vol 10, 1863-1866; Probate Records, Vol 11, 1866-1868. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

Timney Phillips
The State of Alabama     }  To the Hon C A Stanton Judge
     Macon County           }  of Probate Court.
The petition of Thomas H Phillips, and Jeremiah D Phill-
ips, respectfully shows, that your petitioners, and William
R Phillips, and Littleberry B Phillips who reside in the
State of Georgia, Mary E Lane wife of Alexander Lane, Martha 
Adams wife of James O A Adams who reside in said County
of Macon, and all of whom are of full age, Elizabeth Lockwood
who resides in Said County of Macon, Elizabeth Phillips, Eugene
Phillips, Columbiana Phillips & John Henry Phillips, who
are minors and children of Thaddeus Phillips, and represent
their Fathers Interest, and who resides in Georgia and
Joint Owners of Certain lands Situate in Said County of Macon
and known as the South half of the North West quarter of Section
Eighteen (18) Township Fifteen (15) Range twenty four (24) and
Eighty acres of the west half of the South half of the Said
Section Eighteen (18) being the Dower Interest of Timney
Phillips, and that Said lands cannot be equitably fractioned
or divided between Said Joint Owners without a Sale
                  Your petitioner therefore prays that proper notices
may be given, and that your Honor would grant an order to sell  Said
Lands
                             Clopton & Ligon atts for Petitioners

The above petition isn't dated but it is immediately followed by this entry which is.

[Description : Probate Records, Vol 10, 1863-1866; Probate Records, Vol 11, 1866-1868. Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.]

              The State of Alabama
To W F Hodnett, Know you that we, having full faith in your
Prudence and Competency have appointed you Commissioner, and by these
presents do authorize you at Such time and place as you may appoint,
to call before you and examine H Lockwood and William H Stanton
as witnesses in behalf of Plaintiff in a case pending in our Probate
Court of Macon County wherein J D & T H Phillips are Plaintiffs,
and William R Phillips Et al are Defendants, on oath to be by
you administered, upon Interrogatories annexed to this Commis-
sion; to Take and Certify the deposition of the witnesses, and return
the Same to our Said Court, to be held on the 2nd Monday in 
November next, under your hand and seal, witness C A Stanton
Judge of the Said Court at office, this 20th day of October AD one
thousand Eight hundred and 63.
                                                          C A Stanton Judge of Probate
Issued the 20th day of Oct 1863


Paging through the Probate Court records, I saw that naming a Commission to gather depositions from witnesses was a common practice. Next time we'll look at the questions to be asked of the witnesses and the Interrogatories themselves as filed in the Probate Court by W. F. Hodnett.**

And there's still the matter of the suit filed in 1866 which we'll get to in time.

*Note that no mention is made of her oldest son, my great great grandfather J.T.S. Warren, who had already received his inheritance from his father's estate and had moved to Texas in 1852.
**He's been described as a near neighbor of Timney's and we know from bill presented to the court for payment, that he was a doctor who treated her entire household for several years before her death.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.