John, Margaret, Martha, and Sarah Fettmelz seek an account of Richard Smith's estate and the receipt of their inheritance. Richard Smith [also called Fettmelz] died sometime before 1819, survived by his wife and children. His will specified that, after his debts had been paid, the rest of the estate should be sold and the proceeds used for the "purchase of a negro woman that would breed." The petitioners remind the court that they sued Smith's executors, because the executors had not followed the will's instructions despite having the funds available to do so. In that earlier case, the Fettmelzes argued that the executors had waited so long that all but one heir had "come of age & the money would now be more convenient to them than the negro." The court granted their petition, but the original executors have all died. The Fettmelzes now ask the administrators of the executors' estates to show and settle the accounts of Richard Smith's estate and to "pay over to them the balance in their hands."
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
