Marriage Contract (Jones/Mallard)

On April 22, 1857, Mary Sharpe Jones entered into a marriage contract with Robert Q. Mallard, both of Liberty County, the trustees of which were Charles C. Jones, Charles C. Jones Jr, Joseph Jones, Henry H. Jones, and Andrew M. Jones. The contract noted that Mary Sharpe Jones was at that time the owner in her own right of one undivided third part of the Arcadia Plantation in Liberty County, containing 2107 5/10 acres. Details of the land’s boundaries were provided. She also owned one undivided third of all the stock, cattle, sheep, horses, mules, hogs and plantation utensils on the plantation. She was “also owner and proprietress in her own right of the following named negro slaves to wit – Charles and Lucy his wife and their daughter Tenah, Elsy and her children to wit Lizzy and her infant child Becky, Elvira, Bess, Cate, Matilda and little Stepney, Robert and Harriet his wife and their children Betsey and Matilda. 

Robert Q. Mallard agreed that if the marriage should take place, he would have no right or interest in that property or any property she might later acquire by inheritance or otherwise. By virtue of the contract, her property passed to her trustees as named above, to maintained as a distinct estate. Conditions were laid down for inheritance of the trust. Witnessed by Thos. W. Fleming, D. L. Buttolph, F.H. Bowman. Recorded on June 12, 1857, by S.A. Fraser, Clerk.