State North Carolina Edgecombe County} Know all by these presents that I Ephraim Daniel of the County and State aforesaid, for and in consideration of the sum of Three Hundred and Fifty dollars, to me in hand paid by Coffield Ellis of the same County and State afore said, at or before the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt whereof I the said Ephraim Daniel do hereby acknowledge, have granted bargined and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargin and sell unto the said Coffield Ellis, his heirs, Executors, Adm. and assigns, one Negro Woman by the name of Mima, also one Boy Child named Lewis; the woman about forty years of age, the Boy between one & two years of age. To have and to hold the above bargained negroes, to him the said Coffield Ellis his heirs, Executors, Adm’rs, and assigns for ever, and I the said Ephraim Daniel my heirs, Executors, Admr’s, and assigns doth and will for ever Warrant & defend, unto the said Coffield Ellis, his heirs, Executors, Adm’rs, and assigns the right title, claim or demand, of the above bargained negroes from all or any person or persons lawfully claiming the same, In witness of which I have hereunto set my hand and seal the 9th day of January 1823 Ephraim Daniel Witness Reddick Barnes
Edgecombe County February Court 1823 The within Bill of Sale was duly exhibited in open Court _ proved by the oath of Reddick Barnes _ ordered to be Recorded Test. M’l Hearn Clk.
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Coffield Ellis’ 1854 will contained a bequest to his wife Penninah of enslaved people named Miney and Lewis, among others. Miney was described as “old” and a “faithful servant” and may have been Mima, who would have been about 70 years old at the time.
However, the 1812 will of Coffield Ellis’ father William Ellis Sr. also contained, among others, a Mimah, who bequeathed to wife Unity Ellis, but was eventually distributed to son Jonathan Ellis. William Ellis Sr. also owned Isham, who had a son circa 1834 named Lewis.
Deed book 17, page 559, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds, Tarboro, North Carolina.
I wonder if this change was for better or worse for Mima, but knowing that if at age forty she had a child under age two, then she was most likely being moved away from her other children.
I’ve pondered these relationships. Was Lewis her son? Her grandson? Either way, she almost certainly had many other children. Your comment reminds me to follow up on something that slipped my mind. My cousins are descended from Lewis Ellis, born about 1834, who was enslaved by Coffield Ellis’ father William Ellis Sr. (William also enslaved a woman named Mima.) This Lewis, whose parents appear to have been Isham and Patience Ellis, is different from Coffield Ellis’ Lewis, and I should note this.