Eliza and John Blake ask the court to compel Abraham Jones, Eliza's brother-in-law and the administrator of her father's estate, to account with them for Eliza's portion of the estate. The Blakes claim that Eliza's father, James Goodwyn, promised to give them property brought to his marriage by Eliza's mother, who died in 1811. Eliza was under five when she was taken by an aunt and reared without James's assistance. The property in question included a tract of land in Alabama and fifteen slaves. At the time of the verbal agreement, the couple had no use for the slaves, as they were field hands and the couple lived in Charleston and had a "sufficiency of domestics." Goodwyn then decided that he would hire the slaves himself, paying their wages to John as he would "any other person." They did not fix a hiring price, however, before Goodwyn died. Jones, now the administrator of Goodwyn's estate, is unwilling to honor their verbal agreement. The Blakes ask the court to compel Jones to turn over the slaves to them and to account for their hire for the years 1825 and 1826.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
