James Pickett seeks repayment of a debt. He states that Reuben Pickett, Robert Knox, and Susanna Pickett owed him $4628.80 and that he "obtained from them a confession of judgment" in 1827 in order to secure payment. He contends that the debtors were able to pay this debt, as they jointly owned and operated a 1200-acre plantation with seventy slaves, worth about $30,000, and had mostly settled some prior debts owed to the late John Pickett. He also declares that James B. Pickett, executor of John Pickett's estate, agreed that "your Orators debt should be paid in preference" to the remainder due to the estate. Later, though, James B. Pickett conspired with the three debtors, his uncles and grandmother, to prevent payment by various fraudulent means, including fictitious debts and rigged sales. Robert Knox, Reuben Pickett, and Susanna Pickett are all dead, and James B. Pickett controls most of their property, although no one has officially administered their estates. The petitioner asks the court to investigate the transactions, to void all improper ones, and to order James B. Pickett to pay the debt owed him.
Result: Granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
