estate records

The estate of John Farmer (1852).

As Hugh B. Johnston put it, “John Farmer lost his mind in 1824 and had spells of irrationality until the end of his life.” “It is said,” he wrote, “that John Farmer was rather violent sometimes, and his family was then forced to chain him in the log corn crib near the public road a short distance east of Wilson on the present highway 42.” Until his death in 1852, Farmer’s affairs were managed by a series of legal guardians, the last of whom was Joshua Barnes. Despite allegation that an early guardian was a wastrel, by all appearances the estate was well cared-for, and Farmer’s healthy assets included twenty enslaved people.

On 3 January 1853, a committee met at James D. Barnes’ house in Wilson to divide Farmer’s enslaved people among his ten heirs — nine adult children and his widow. The value of each share was $1057.50, and getting as close as possible to that amount was the driving factor in determining who was paired with whom. Not kinship.  Surely some of the people named in this list were children, perhaps quite small, separated from their immediate families. (Overs and unders, by the way, were fixed with cash exchanges.)

  • Lot No. 1 — Henry and Fanny, $1450, to Arthur Bardin for wife Lency Farmer Bardin
  • Lot No. 2 — Dick and Minters, $1350, to Blunt Bulluck for wife Polly Farmer Bulluck
  • Lot No. 3 — Sarah and Amos, $1075, to Thomas Yelverton for wife Nancy Farmer Yelverton
  • Lot No. 4 — Peter and Caesar, $1025, to John W. Wilkins and wife Delphia Farmer Wilkins
  • Lot No. 5 — Joe and Ned, $975, to George T. Yelverton and wife Edith Farmer Yelverton
  • Lot No. 6 — Jim and Dorcas, $925, to Jesse Farmer
  • Lot No. 7 — Grace and Elvin, $1000, to John Farmer
  • Lot No. 8 — Julia and Penny, $900, to William D. Farmer
  • Lot No. 9 — Will and Cherry, $900, to Isaac B. Farmer
  • Lot No. 10 — Abram and Treasy, $975, to Nancy Farmer, John Farmer’s widow

Shortly after the distribution, Isaac Farmer, John’s son and administrator, paid Daniel Hocott ten dollars for “keeping Negro woman Julian while lying in with her child Penny.” Julia and Penny then, who went to William D. Farmer, were a mother and infant.

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To date, I have no evidence of family ties among the other distributed pairs, but we have met Henry before. He secured his own freedom by leaving Arthur and Lency Bardin’s farm, making his way to the coast, and enlisting in the United States Colored Troops.

Thomas and Nancy Yelverton and George and Edith Yelverton lived in the Pikeville area of northern Wayne County, North Carolina. Amos Yelverton married Martha Coley on 12 January 1867 in Wayne County. He and his family are found in the 1870 census of Pikeville township. Ned Yelverton enlisted with the United States Colored Troops in Goldsboro in April 1865. He married Gustin Faison; they are found in Wayne County census records.

Peter may have been Peter Wilkins, who married Julia Wilkins in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, on 12 August 1866. They are found in the 1870 and 1880 censuses of Sparta township, Edgecombe County.

Caesar Wilkins, son of Samuel Horn and Sarah Farmer, married Bina Barnes, daughter of Benjamin Barnes and Violet Barnes, in 26 January 1871 in Wilson County. (Caesar’s mother, perhaps, was the Sarah who went to Thomas and Nancy Yelverton with Amos.)

Abram, who remained with Nancy Farmer, was Abram Farmer, whom we met here and here. Abram Farmer was baptized at Toisnot Primitive Baptist Church in 1842 and joined the church about 1870. Abram Farmer and Cherry Bridges registered their 11-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace in 1866. In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Abraham Farmer, 57; wife Cherry Farmer, 54; Jane Farmer, 16; Caroline Armstrong, 30, and her children Gray, 6, Thadeus, 4, and John, 2 months; and farm laborer York Gill, 35. (Was Cherry Bridges the Cherry who went to Isaac B. Farmer? Perhaps.)

John Farmer Estate (1852), Edgecombe County, North Carolina Estate Files 1663-1979, http://www.familysearch.org; Johnston, Hugh, “Looking Backward,” Wilson Daily Times, 2 January 1960.

The estate of Bennett Bullock.

Bennett Bullock lived in an area of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, now in Wilson County. Bulluck died in 1836, and his estate entered probate. In November Term 1838 of Edgecombe County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, widow Martha Bullock petitioned the court for the apportionment of three enslaved people — Dave, Rose, and Milly — that she and her minor children inherited as tenants in common.

Eighteen years later, in Wilson County court, William and Bennett Bullock Jr. received their shares of their father’s enslaved property. Bennett Bullock drew Dave; William Bullock, Milly.

Bennett Bullock Estate File (1836); Bennett Bullock Estate File (1855), Edgecombe County, North Carolina Estate Files 1663-1979, http://www.familysearch.org.

The hire of Lewis, 1863.

Farmer Charles A. Scott enlisted in the Confederate Army on 14 May 1862. He was hospitalized several times during his service and died 11 September 1863 in a Goldsboro, North Carolina, hospital.

Scott enslaved one person at the time of his death, a man named Lewis. David Ammons Scott, administrator of Charles Scott’s estate, hired Lewis out to Matthew V. Peele of Cross Roads township, Wilson County, for a period of just over a year.

Acount of the hire of Lewis be longing to estate of Charles A Scott Dec.d hired out from the 30th of November 1863 to the 2nd of January 1865 Said Lewis to be furnished with Provisions and the following clothing to wit, three Suits of clothes one of which is to be woolen one hat one Blanket one pair socks two pair of shoes by his hirer and to be returned to me at the court house in the Town of Wilson on the 2nd day of January 1865 the hirer will be Required to give Bond with approved security before the delivery of negro     David A. Scott Admr.

Lewis to M.V. Peele  $51.50

Document courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

The estate of Phebe Barden of Pontotoc County, Mississippi.

The third in a series documenting enslaved people held by the Bardin/Barden family, who lived in the Black Creek area in what was once Wayne County, but is now Wilson County.

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Phebe Barden was born in 1826 to William and Nancy Cook Barden. After their father’s death in 1837, Phebe Barden and her siblings migrated to Mississippi, primarily to Pontotoc County.

Phebe Barden died shortly after her 18th birthday in 1844. Her brother Jacob Barden was appointed administrator of her estate. On 8 February 1845, he sold Phebe Barden’s property — four enslaved people. Phebe had received Cherry and one of Cherry’s children in the distribution of her father’s estate. It seems likely the boys Addison, Jack, and Nathan were Cherry’s sons. Phebe’s brother William Barden purchased Cherry, whose price was either discounted or suggests poor health, and the children were parted from their mother (or mother figure) when Phebe’s brother-in-law John Smith (married to Penelope Barden Smith) bought Addison and brother James Bardin bought Jack and Nathan.

I have no further information about Cherry, Addison, Jack, or Nathan.

Book 2, pages 436-437, Pontotoc County, Mississippi Wills and Probate Records 1780-1982, http://www.ancestry.com.

The estate of Mary Howell Bardin.

The first in a series documenting enslaved people held by the Bardin/Barden family, who lived in the Black Creek area in what was once Wayne County but is now Wilson County.

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Mary Howell Bardin, widow of Arthur Bardin, died about 1854. Mary Bardin’s estate file contains a document recording the 14 December 1854 division of enslaved people among her six surviving children:

  • James H. Barnes and wife Susan A. Bardin Barnes received Axey and her unnamed child.
  • John P. Bardin received Sarah and her child Wright.
  • William H. Bardin received Handy and Queen.
  • Benjamin H. Bardin received Mourning.
  • Mary B. Bardin received Caroline and Winny.
  • Jesse J. Bardin received Mariah and Jane.

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  • Axey and child

In a post about Jeremiah Barden (Jerry Borden)’s Freedmen’s Bank accounts, I wrote: “When Jeremiah Barden opened his first account, he reported that he was living up the Trent River in Jones County, working on Colonel Whitford’s land for himself (i.e. as a tenant farmer.) Barden is frustratingly elusive in census records. His birth family, however, remained back in Wilson County and appear in the 1870 census of Black Creek township: farm laborer Washington Simms, 57, and wife Exy, 47, plus Henry, 32, Gatsey, 27, Nathan, 10, Grant, 4, and Harrit Simms, 5; Waity Nelson, 18; Joseph, 14, Samuel, 12, Mary, 10, and Della Simms, 8; Ellen Barden, 1; and William Nelson, 26. They are listed in close proximity to white farmers Arthur Barden, 54, and Benjamin Barden, 42. It is a reasonable conjecture that Exy Simms and her children (but not her husband Washington) belonged to one of these Bardens prior to Emancipation, and Jeremiah adopted “Barden” as a surname as a result.”

My hunch was right. In 1866, Washington Simms and Axey Barnes registered their 30-year marriage with a Wilson County justice of the peace. Axey, who had been enslaved by Mary Barden, was allotted to James and Susan Barnes in 1854 and adopted the Barnes surname. Her son Jerry, born about 1840, had a different owner, and adopted Barden (which became Borden) as his surname. (Their husband and father, Washington Simms, had been enslaved by Benjamin Simms II. More to come on that.)

  • Sarah and child Wright

In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Alford Barden, 28; wife Mourning, 25; and children Harriss, 3, and Sarah, 1; plus Wright, 15, and Caroline Barden, 21, and Thoms Harrison, 28.

  • Handy
  • Queen

In 1866, Ben Barden and Quince Barden registered their 40-year cohabitation in Wilson County.

In the 1880 federal mortality schedule of Wilson County: Queene Barden, 74, widow, died August 1879 at home.

  • Mourning

In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Alford Barden, 28; wife Mourning, 25; and children Harriss, 3, and Sarah, 1; plus Wright, 15, and Caroline Barden, 21, and Thoms Harrison, 28.

  • Caroline

In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Alford Barden, 28; wife Mourning, 25; and children Harriss, 3, and Sarah, 1; plus Wright, 15, and Caroline Barden, 21, and Thoms Harrison, 28.

Also, in the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Caroline Barden, 21, farm laborer, and daughter Georgian, 1.

  • Winny
  • Mariah
  • Jane

In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Alford Barden, 28; wife Mourning, 25; and children Harriss, 3, and Sarah, 1; plus Wright, 15, and Caroline Barden, 21, and Thoms Harrison, 28.

Estate File of Mary Barden (1852), Wayne County, North Carolina Estate Files 1663-1979, http://www.familysearch.org.

The roots of many Wilson County Artises, no. 1: Solomon and Vicey Artis Williams.

Vicey Artis, a free woman of color, and Solomon Williams, an enslaved man, had eleven children together – Zilpha Artis Wilson, Adam Toussaint Artis, Jane Artis Artis, Loumiza Artis Artis, Charity Artis, Lewis Artis, Jonah Williams, Jethro Artis, Jesse Artis, Richard Artis, and Delilah Williams Exum — before they were able to marry legally. On 31 August 1866, they registered their 35-year cohabitation in Wayne County. Vicey died soon after, but Solomon lived until 1883.  The document above, listing his and Vicey’s six surviving children and heirs of their deceased children, is found among Solomon Williams’ estate papers.

In the antebellum period, Vicey Artis and her children, who were apprenticed to Silas Bryant, lived in the Artis Town area of Bull Head township, Greene County, N.C., just a few miles over the border of Wilson County. Solomon Williams presumably lived relatively close by. Before 1860, the family shifted west into the Eureka area of Wayne County (which may have been their original home territory), and Vicey died around 1868. Descendants of at least five of Vicey and Solomon’s children — most notably son Adam T. Artis — migrated into Wilson County starting around 1900, settling in and around Stantonsburg and Wilson.

We have met Jonah Williams here and here and elsewhere. We’ve also met Loumiza Artis Artis’ husband Thomas Artis. Stay tuned for more about my great-great-great-grandfather Adam T. Artis, Zilpha Artis Wilson, Jesse Artis, and Richard Artis.

[Sidenote: Artis was the most common surname among Wayne County free people of color. In the 1840, 1850 and 1860 censuses, Artis families primarily are found clustered in northern Wayne County, near present-day Eureka and Fremont. Though eastern North Carolina Artises ultimately share common ancestry stretching back to mid-17th century Virginia, the precise relationships between various Wayne County lines — not to mention other Greene and Johnston County Artis lines — is not clear. In other words, though many of today’s Artises in Wilson are descended from Vicey Artis and Solomon Williams (or Vicey’s siblings Sylvania Artis Lane and Daniel Artis), none should assume descent from this line.]

A dispute over the estate of James Scarborough.

We revisited James Scarborough’s early nineteenth-century house outside Saratoga last week, and we examined the contents of his will here. Scarborough died shortly after executing his will in 1835, and his estate entered a lengthy and contentious probate.

To wife Martha and daughter Zilly Scarborough, along with his home and other property, Scarborough left “A Parcel of Negros that is to say Nan Aggy Sen’r Silvey Lemon Washington Sumter and Young Aggy and Haywood these Eight negros with the in Creas I lend them Jointly to Geather to my wife & daughter Zilly but by no means to be Hired out but to Remane on the Plantation to labour for them …”

To his son John R. Scarborough: “I also gave him three Likely negros when he went a way and now I give him four more after my death there names is as follows Luke Guilford Orange and Willis the above negros is not to be carryed away without a Lawful authority or Either by himself or his Heirs or Executors….” (In fact, John Scarborough took the men to Alabama even before the estate was opened, claiming that they were a gift to him rather than part of the estate.)

Scarborough died 1 March 1836. Nan, an enslaved woman, barely outlived her master:

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Rec’d the 28th Oct 1836 of Richard T. Eagles one of the Executors to James Scarboroughs will the sum of three Dollars & fifty Cents in full for making Coffin for Negro Nann.  William J. Lewis

The estate paid for the care of Silvey and four children for the year 1837.

Rec’d the 9th Decr 1837 the Sum of forty Dollar of Stephen Wooten and Richard T. Eagles Exer to the Estate of James Scarborgh decst for keeping Silvy and 4 children for the year 1837.  R.T. Eagles for Martha Scarbrough    Witness [illegible] Edwards

Despite James Scarborough’s express directive that “by no means” should his enslaved people be hired out, they were. Immediately.

On behalf of herself and her daughter Zilly, Martha Scarborough repeatedly challenged the terms of the will and the handling of the estate. In March 1839, pursuant to court order, a committee prepared an inventory of the enslaved people in Scarborough’s estate. They were: Aggy, age 55 ($100); Silva, age 37, and her two-month-old child Bunny ($650); Milly, age 3 ($250); Haywood, age 5 ($350); Aggy, age 7 ($400); Sumpter, age 9 ($550); Washington, age 14 ($725); and Lemon, age 16 ($850). Sumpter was “set apart” for widow Martha Scarborough.

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Martha Scarborough immediately sold Sumter to her son Jonathan T. Eason. Or did she? See below.

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Rec’d of Jonathan T. Eason five hundred and fifty Dollars in full for negro Sumter whitch was aloted to me in the Devishion of the negroes of the Decst James Scarborough my Late husbun this the 3th of April 1839  Martha (X) Scarborough      J.B. Eason

On 5 March 1840, Jonathan T. Eason received sixty dollars from the estate for caring for Silvey and three of her children during the previous year. Silva’s children appear to have been Bunny, Milly, Haywood, and Aggy. As a seven or eight year-old, Aggy would have been considered old enough to hire out separate from her mother.

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In 1843, Martha Scarborough filed petition charging her son Jonathan T. Eason with having taken advantage of her by convincing that the boy Sumpter, also known as Tom Sumpter, who was eight or ten years old in January 1840, was “badly grown for his age,” and the land she’d received as dower was “poor & much exhausted by cultivation.” She claimed she had eventually given way to Eason’s solicitations to manage her property — “he had acquired in a little time a complete ascendancy over her will” —  and he had sold it away in bits and pieces. “When he obtained consent to  sell the slave Tom Sumpter which was the only one she possessed he promised that she should have another to wait and attend upon her during her life ….” In a deposition of William W. Edwards taken pursuant to Scarborough’s litigation, Edwards testified that “I was well acquainted with the negro Sumpter. He was sold by Jonathan T. Eason to John Harrell Sr. at Eagles’ store for the sum of $560.00.” (This was probably Richard T. Eagles’ store in Edgecombe County.)

The outcome of Martha Scarborough’s suit is not clear.

The James Scarborough house.

James Scarborough Estate Records, North Carolina Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998, ancestry.com; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.

Lane Street Project: Nunnie Barnes.

Nunnie Barnes’ headstone.

Nunnie Barnes‘ headstone is one of the largest standing in the cleared section of Odd Fellows’ cemetery. She died on 26 August 1921 in Wilson. Barnes was unmarried and had no children, but left a sizable estate. W.M. Farmer and R.G. Briggs filed for letters of administration of estate, naming her siblings Sarah Joyner, Annie Alexander, and Sam Barnes as heirs and estimating her estate as a one-quarter interest in a house and lot at 604 Viola Street (worth about $500) and other property totaling about $2400.

Nunnie Barnes’ name is elusive in the record, but we can find glimpses of her family. (Her sister, Sarah Barnes Joyner, was featured in the post about her home at 609 Viola Street.) 

In the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Ellis [Ellic] Barnes, 27, teamster; wife Frances, 25; and children Minnie [possibly Nunnie], 2, Mary, 1, and infant, 1 month. 

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Alexander Barnes, 35, farmer; wife Francis, 33; Mannie [possibly Nunnie], 13, Stanley, 10, Louizah, 7, Sarah, 5, and Roscoe, 1. All were reported as born in Virginia, though Frances’ parents were described as North Carolina-born.

I have not found Barnes in the 1900 and 1910 censuses, but she appears in the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory as Nannie Barnes, a domestic living at 615 [now 609] Viola. Per her death certificate, she died 26 August 1921; was born 8 June 1885 in Wilson to Alexander Barnes and Frances Stevens; lived at 604 Viola; and worked for Roscoe G. Briggs, the bank and cotton mill president who helped settle her affairs. [Sidenote: Ned Barnes was Briggs’ coachman and lived on premises in 1900, per the census. Ned was the son of Willis and Cherry Battle Barnes, but there is no known relationship to Nunnie Barnes.]

604 Viola Street (formerly numbered 615 and 612) in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, N.C. Now demolished, the house is described in the 1988 National Historic Register nomination form as “ca. 1908; 1 story; extensively modified triple-A cottage; Masonite-veneered.”

Nunnie Barnes’ foot marker.

Exploring the kinships of men and women enslaved by the Moore-Flowers family.

We examined the connection between John H. Clark‘s father Harry Clark and Isabel Taylor here. Harry and Isabel were children of Annis Taylor, and all had been enslaved by Henry Flowers.

The will of Henry Flowers’ maternal grandfather, Edward Moore, who died in 1783 in Nash County, reveals interesting bequests, including “… to my loving Daughter Judah Flowers one Negro girl Named Nell …” and “… to my loving Daughter Elizabeth Moore one Negro [Wench?] Named Annis ….” Both Nell and Annis were already in possession of Moore’s daughters.

Judith Moore Flowers’ husband John Flowers legally owned Nell. John Flowers died intestate in early 1806, and his widow Judith quickly remarried Edward York. When the enslaved people belonging to Flowers’ estate were distributed in December 1807, York took possession of Primus, Nell, Annis and Will on Judith’s behalf. (Others distributed were Peter, Dorcas, Abram, Mourning, Jacob, Frank, Toney, and Joan.)

It appears that Nell passed from Edward and Judith Moore Flowers York to Judith’s son Henry Flowers and is likely the “old Negro woman Nelly” who died in 1845, per Henry Flowers’ estate records. 

And what about Annis? 

Recall that Edward Moore bequeathed an Annis to his daughter Elizabeth Moore. Was she the same Annis who, 24 years later, was part of John Flowers’ estate? And was this Annis connected to Annis Taylor, who was part of Henry Flowers’ estate in 1845? These and other shared names among the enslaved people belonging to the Moore-Flowers deserve a closer look.

For example, here is the bequest of Henry Flower’s grandfather, also named Henry Flowers, to John Flowers in his 1788 will:

 

Henry “Senior” directed that John receive a man named Primus (after the death of Henry’s wife Nanny) and three boys named Peter, Abraham, and Frank. Primus is surely the man Edward and Judith York took in 1807. It is possible that this is same Frank who is described as “old” in the lot drawn by John’s granddaughter Charity Flowers Taylor and her husband William in the 1849 distribution of the estate Henry “Junior.”  And Peter is probably the Peter named in the lot drawn by Nancy Flowers Mann and her husband Claiborne in the 1807 distribution of John Flowers estate. The Manns moved to Mississippi some time after 1820, and may have taken Peter with them. There is also a Peter in the estate of Henry Flowers Jr. Was he perhaps a son, grandson or nephew of the first Peter?

Henry Flowers Will (1788), John Flowers Estate Record (1806), North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com. Many thanks to Katherine Elks for bringing my attention to these possible connections, which I began to explore here. Stay tuned.

The estate of George W. Thompson.

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Wilson Advance, 19 June 1890.

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In the 1870 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farm laborer George Thompson, 57; wife Rilda, 43; son Rufus, 8; with Cherry Bailey, 42, and Bitha, 25, and Mittie Bailey, 16.

In the 1880 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer George Thompson, 62; wife Marilda, 52; son Rufus, 20; and granddaughter Hattie Thompson, 6.

Apparently on his deathbed, George W. Thompson made out his will 16 December 1885.

He left all his property to his wife Rilda during her lifetime, then his land to son Rufus, and, if Rufus had no heirs, to granddaughter Cora Thompson. After Rilda’s death, his personal property was to be sold and the money equally divided between son Rufus Thompson, Courtney Peacock, and Cora Thompson. Solomon Lamm was appointed executor.

George Thompson died within days. His executor filed to open his estate and prepared this inventory of his property. Though relatively meager, the list represents a laudable achievement for a man who had spent the bulk of his life enslaved.

Unfortunately, George Thompson’s debts outweighed the value of his estate, forcing the sale advertised in the notice above of a ten-acre parcel adjoining the property of M.V. Peele, Isaac Rich, and Henry Peacock. Marilda and Rufus Thompson had left the area, however, and could not be found in the county for service.

George Thompson Will, George Thompson Estate Records, North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.