They Had Names

African Americans in Early Records of Liberty County, Georgia

Deed of Gift (Arthur/Bilney)

Enslaved Persons Named: Peter, Jemmy [or Jimmy], Pompey, Scylla, Handy

On November 15, 1780, Mary Arthur, spinster of St. John’s Parish in the Georgia Province [now Liberty County], gifted to her daughter Mary Bilney, spinster of same place, “the five Negroes following, namely Peter, Jemmy [or Jimmy], Pompey, Scylla [alt: Cilla, Silla] and Handy, as well as Sunbury lot #26 and “all and singular my other personal estate of whatever denomination and in whatever place or in whatever hands…” If Mary Bilney were to die childless, this property was to be divided between “my son Joseph Oswald and the children of Jeremiah and Sarah Dickinson namely Francis Dickinson and Elizabeth Mitchel Dickinson…” Witnessed by Elizabeth Maxwell, John Richey, David Rees. Recorded in Liberty County Superior Court on August 2, 1787. 

Source: Family Search.org. Liberty County Superior Court “Deeds and mortgages, 1777-1920; general index to deeds and mortgages, 1777-1958,” Film: Deeds & Mortgages, v. A-B 1777-1793,” Record Book B, 1787-1793, p. 6. Image #271 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLZ-FGCL?i=270&cat=292358)