Ann S. Chaney explains that her father, Henry Boswell, gave her a six-year-old female slave named Polly at the time of her first marriage to Samuel Wood. Following her husband's death, her father-in-law Samuel Wood Sr., "pretending to have a good title to the said Polly," sold her in 1819 for a term of years to Joseph Chaney, Ann's second husband. Polly gave birth to a daughter, Hester, whom Chaney mortgaged to a creditor, William Hopkins. Hopkins then sold Hester at public auction to satisfy the debt. Ann purchased Hester at the sale and has been in possession of Hester ever since. Now, Ann complains that Samuel Wood, "without any shadow of title to the said Hester," executed a deed of manumission in 1824 which set Hester's term of servitude to expire on 25 May 1847. Chaney complains that such manumission would defraud her of her right to Hester's service. She asks for an injunction to prohibit the clerk of court, Joseph H. Nicholson, from issuing Hester her certificate of freedom.
Result: Denied.
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Repository: Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
