John Lines – Liberty County Estate Inventory

Location: Liberty County, Georgia
Deceased: Lines, John
Date Sworn: 1788-02-05
Appraisers: William Henry Cassels, William Baker Sen’r, William Baker R
Estate Executors: Lazarus Mallard
Court Officer: Thomas Baker
Date Recorded: unknown (see comments)
Recording Official: unknown (see comments)
Total Value of Property Appraised: 745.8.2 pounds
Value of enslaved persons:
Comments: On February 5, 1788, William Henry Cassels, William Baker Sen’r, and William Baker R. appeared before Thomas Baker, Register of Probate for Liberty County, to be sworn as appraisers for the estate of John Lines, as shown by executor Lazarus Mallard. The enslaved people are grouped by gender and age (fellows, wenches, boys, and girls) so were not listed in family order. Then on September 23, 1788, William Henry Cassels and William Baker Senior appeared before Samuel Saltus, J.P. to present the inventory, saying that William Baker R. had passed away since the inventory. They said that they did not present it immediately because executor Lazarus Mallard had expected some additional effects to have come from Augusta to be inserted in the inventory, but that had not happened. Before they were sure that there would not be additions to the inventory, William Baker R had been stricken by his final illness and they were not sure if their inventory would be accepted with only two remaining appraisers living.

This inventory and the court documents found in loose files, not in the probate record book.

[NOTE: According to the History and Published Records of Midway Congregational Church, Liberty County, Georgia, by James Stacy, p. 30, “we frequently meet in the Records of the church and even of the county courts, with the letters B and R after the name of John and William Baker. As there were two of these names, one John, the son of John, and another the son of Benjamin; and one William, the son of Benjamin, and another the son of Richard, these letters were used to distinguish them. Thus John Baker B, or William Baker B, was the son of Benjamin, whilst William Baker R was the son of Richard Baker.”]

Find the digitized original at: Loose Papers in folders by surname, Liberty County, Georgia, Probate Court; digitized images with typewritten indexes, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9Q4-ZKZ5 : accessed 7 Jun 2026), “Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990 -> Liberty -> Estate records 1775-1892 Baker, Ann – Baker, William , image 847-850.