Enslaved People Named: Rachel, Nancy, John, Rosina, Linda, Cork, Subina, Sapho [alt: Sappho], [Rorah?], Edinburgh, Pompey, Tamer [alt: Tamar], Linda, Grace, Kate, Peter, Flora, James, Handy, Jinny [alt: Jenny], Nanny, Grace, Catherine, Lott, Harriet
Marriage contract in Savannah between Samuel Wilkins and widow Mrs. Mary Taarlingh of Liberty County dated December 8, 1798. Her trustees were named as James Cochran and William Stephens, both of Georgia.
The two parties agreed that her real and personal property “and also a number of Negroes of the said Samuel Wilkins herein named” would be put into a trust managed by Cochran and Stephens. The trust was to be used for the “sole and separate use of the said Mary Taarlingh, without the control of her said husband, with full permission, to employ hire, sell or dispose of the said lands of any part thereof, of of the said Slaves or either of them, or their issue, and to receive the profits of the said, as the said Mary Taarlingh, may see fit, and any contract, sale or bargain the said Mary may make of and in respect to either her real, or personal property, shall be good and valid, without the signature of her intended husband, or Trustees, to which they assent by signing these presents.” She was also able to leave them as she chose when she died. If she died without children and had made no will, then the property was to pass to her intended husband, Samuel Wilkins, and to his heirs and assigns.
The “property” placed in the trust by Mary Taarlingh was:
“All that tract of land called the Hermitage containing eight hundred acres, more or less, in Liberty County aforesaid, bounded by lands of Thomas Quarterman, John Bacon, Strong Ashmore, and lands heretofore the property of Gary Elliot, conveyed on the 19th October 1795 by the said James Cochran to the said Mary Taarlingh her heirs and assigns, also all those three several tracts of land called Mount Pellion, containing together one thousand acres more or less, situate on the south side of Great Ogeechee river now in the County of [left blank] formerly Effingham County, bounded to the north by the said River, at the Rock Ford, to the south by lands of James Stallings and Elijah Bowen, west by Clifton Bowen and East by unknown lands which premises were granted to Jonathan & Cochran deceased, and sold under execution by Thomas Lane sheriff of Effingham County aforesaid, and by him on the 27th day of January 1878 by deed conveyed to the above named James Cochran in trust for the said Mary Taarlingh her heirs and assigns”
“All those five negro, or mulatto slaves of her the said Mary Taarlingh namely, Rachel, Nancy, John and Rosina and Linda”
Samuel Wilkins also placed the following “property” in the trust for her: “The following twenty negroes, namely Cork, Subina, Sapho, ? Rorah ?, Edinburgh, Pompey, Tamer [alt: Tamar], Linda, Grace, Kate, Peter, Flora, James, Handy, Jinny, Nanny Grace, Catherine Lott & Harriet.” The trustees were to hold them in trust for him until the marriage took place, and afterwards for the “sole use and uncontrolled use benefit & advantage, with full liberty, to work & employ them by the said Samuel Wilkins, or his agents, for & during his natural life, and after his death, then the said negro slaves with the future issue of the said females” to be held in trust by the trustees or their successors for Mary.
The contract was witnessed by Ingram M. Monnox and John W. Wilkins. Monnox probated the signatures on March 4, 1799. The document was recorded in Chatham County Superior Court on February 26, 1799.
Chatham County Superior Court, Deed Book 1U (1799-1800), pages 123-127; images, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTX-62DN : 9 Aug 2025), images 272-275; FamilySearch Library image group number #008335676.