Will Summary (published 1964)
Alexander Daniel Cuthbert. Last Will and Testament dated August 2, 1804; probated June 5, 1805. Directs his brother, Isaac Cuthbert, to petition the legislature to free testator’s mulatto boy, William, and also directs him to buy two negro boys not under 12 years of age and give them to said mulatto William. Testator also frees his mulatto girl child Betsy, and directs his said brother to have her emancipated at the same time as William. Testator gives her 3 slaves. He also gives to Matilda Baker (relationship, if any, not stated) his two mulatto girls Sally and Mary (who are sisters), and directs said Matilda to take charge of said Betsy, she to be “bred up as virtuous as good circumstances will admit.” He gives to Miss Ann Baker his organ and says his mulatto girl Sally knows how to play it. He directs that Ann and Matilda Baker be paid $50 each out of which they shall furnish said three mulatto girls mourning suits and each a mourning ring, and directs them to treat said girls with kindness. All the residue of his estate he gives to his said brother, Isaac Cuthbert and at the death of said Isaac, he gives the remainder over to his (testator’s) nephews, Alfred and John Alexander Cuthbert. Witnesses: William McWhir, Andrew Maybank, John Lawson, Sr., John Bunkley.
Slave names left out of the original summary:
Additions to above from the original will: The “mulatto boy” William who was to be freed was apprenticed to Asa Stoney, a carpenter in Savannah at the time the will was written. The two “negro boys not under 12 years of age” who were to be purchased and given to William were to be bound to Asa Stoney. The three slaves who were to be given to his “mulatto girl child Betsy” were named Will, Maria and Binah, who appears to have been Will and Maria’s child. Twenty dollars was to be given by his brother to the child during his life. He also desired that his sister Matilda Baker was to have the “mulatto child Betsy” taught to read and write, “the expenses of which are to be defrayed from the annual labour of the Negroes Will & Maria.”
Find the original (complete) will online at:
Ancestry.com:
FamilySearch.org:
“Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990,” images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893L-P9XD?cc=1999178&wc=9SYT-PT5%3A267679901%2C268032901 : 20 May 2014), Liberty > Wills, appraisements and bonds 1790-1850 vol B > image 89 of 689; county probate courthouses, Georgia.
1964 Summaries From: “Georgia Court-House Records – Liberty County,” 1964 quarterly issues of The Georgia Genealogical Magazine, Folks Huxford, Editor. Published Under the Auspices of The Wiregrass Georgia Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.