Enslaved People Named: Patty, Leah, Joe, Jack, Peggy, Sharper, Juba, Mary, Robert, Jacob, Ben, Ellick, Sue
Parties to the Case: Ann S. Harris, John B. Bacon, Furman Whitwell, Samuel S. Law, John D. Hathaway
Court Session: 1833
Summary: Ann S. Harris, as daughter of Thomas F. Bacon (d. 1823), sued her brother John B. Bacon and alleged accomplices Furman Whitwell and John D. Hathway for defrauding her of part of her father’s estate. The complicated case involved the allegedly improper sale of 21 of the estate’s enslaved people. Court documents included her father’s 1823 will, an estate inventory, and various deeds of conveyance. The court found in favor of Ann S. Harris and ordered that the sale be set aside.
A complicated family legal battle among the heirs of Thomas F. Bacon revealed family genealogy information and names the fates of the people they held in slavery. It began in the December 1833 term of the Liberty County, Georgia, Superior Court, sitting in equity, when Ann S. Harris, a widow and daughter of Thomas F. Bacon, sued her brother John B. Bacon for malfeasance in handling their father’s estate. Ann referred to Thomas F. Bacon’s March 18, 1823 will, which was part of the lawsuit’s exhibits. She pointed out that it left $1000 to each of his daughters and left his personal property to be equally divided among his children. Stating her father died in August 1823, she noted that Samuel S. Law had become the executor of the estate, Joseph Law and Thomas Bacon declining to serve, though they had been named as executors in the will. Law then took possession of the estate, with the personal property amounting to $16052.37, debts of less than $6000, and estate income of about $3000. After two years, son John B. Bacon became executor and took over management of the estate.
Ann S. Harris stated that at the time of Thomas F. Bacon’s death, he left four children, his heirs: herself, now a widow; Thomas Bacon, John B., Bacon, Jane Bacon and Philip Bacon. (It is not clear why Ann specified there were four children, then named five.) Jane and Philip had died without children and without a will before the time of the lawsuit, and thus their inheritances were to be divided among the other heirs.
She then accused John D. Hathaway of Liberty County of having undue influence over executor John B. Bacon, alleging that Bacon had allowed “several of the most valuable negroes of the said estate” to be sold at Sheriff’s auction the previous June for $4100 to satisfy promissory notes he had executed to Hathaway and Furman R. Whitwell in his capacity as estate executor. Hathaway bought 11 or 12 enslaved people. She said the people sold had then been returned to the estate and were still in the possession of John B. Bacon. Ann Harris pointed out that her father had never owed money to Hathaway or Whitwell, and that Bacon had no right to sell these people to pay off his own personal debts, even if he had executed the promissory notes on behalf of the estate. She also charged that Hathaway had received 18 bales of Sea Island cotton from the estate’s 1826 crop and part of the 1827 estate crop and a “negro boy” valued at $300.
Harris said she had asked Bacon and Samuel S. Law for an accounting and division of the estate, and for an explanation of the sale of the enslaved people, but they had not complied. John B. Bacon reportedly had told her that the estate’s income had not been sufficient to pay its debts; she disagreed. She asked the Court to compel all the parties involved to testify. She also asked that they be compelled to reveal the names of the slaves they had had sold, the names of the purchasers and the money they brought in.
Thomas F. Bacon’s 1823 will and a February 10, 1824, inventory and appraisement were appended to the lawsuit as Exhibits A. (For a transcript of the will, see: https://theyhadnames.net/2026/06/20/thomas-f-bacon-1823-liberty-county-will/. For a summary of the estate inventory, see: https://theyhadnames.net/2019/07/16/liberty-county-estate-inventory-thomas-l-bacon/. For an inventory and division in December 1824, see https://theyhadnames.net/2020/03/13/liberty-county-estate-inventory-division-thomas-f-bacon/.
The lawsuit then included the responses of the various defendants.
Samuel S. Law responded that during his time as executor, he made regular reports of the estate accounting to the Liberty County Court of Ordinary, and attached that as Exhibit B. He stated that the February 10, 1824, estate inventory and division was at the behest of eldest son Thomas D. Bacon, and that he had delivered 12 “negroes” from that division to Thomas D. Bacon, “who executed a mortgage upon the said negroes to secure the payment of so much of the debts of said estate as fell to the said Thomas D. in consideration of his receiving the said negroes & withdrawing them from the estate.” He stated that the testator had left four children at the time of his death, and agreed that Philip and Jane Bacon had died afterward. He pointed out that John B. Bacon had come of age and was residing on the plantation where the enslaved people and other property was, and that Ann S. Harris had become a widow “capable of acting for herself” and was also living with John B. Brown on the said plantation. He said they (Ann and John) had both wanted John B. Bacon to become executor. Law, finding administration of the estate to be extremely inconvenient, had agreed to introduce John B. Bacon as an executor in 1820. At that point, he said, John B. Bacon took on the entire management of the estate and thus Law could not produce any accounts from after that time. He added that in 1824 and 1825, when the property was under his management, the crops were very small and almost entirely destroyed by hurricane and caterpillars, so that he was not able to reduce the estate debts or even to meet the estate’s and family’s expenses. In addition, Thomas F. Bacon was indebted to Furman R. Whitwell at the time his death, and the family became further indebted to his store after that time. He detailed the promissory notes given to Whitwell and also to John D. Hathaway for estate supplies. Law said he had learned that John D. Hathway had befriended John B. Bacon and that Hathaway had offered to help out with the debts, and Law, believing Hathaway was only looking for a good return on his money, advised accepting the offer. He knew nothing of any further dealings between Bacon and Hathaway.
By 1828, unable to get satisfactory information from John B. Bacon about estate affairs, Law had become concerned that money owed him by the estate would not receive priority and also that he would be personally responsible for notes signed by John B. Bacon to Whitwell, Hathaway and others, so he wrote about 50 notes for about $30 each to Hathaway, who was acting as Whitwell’s agent, for the purpose of having them taken to court and thus getting priority. However, he was then called away to the “up country,” and upon his return, was surprised to find that 21 “negroes” of the estate had been advertised for sale by the Sheriff to satisfy these notes. This led him to suspect “improper conduct” and upon inquiry, he discovered that John B. Baconhad also given Hathaway a very large number of small notes, payable to Whitwell, which had also been taken to court, which resulted in the sale of such a large number of people. Law said he had never understood why John B. Bacon had done this, though Bacon said that he had given the notes without anything in return but as part of an arrangement with Hathaway to buy the people for Bacon. Law said he had no explanation for Bacon’s giving Hathaway the notes except in return for him buying the people and giving them to Bacon. Law said that this caused him to believe that “fraud & imposition” were involved, and suggested to Ann S. Harris that she bring suit.
John B. Bacon, for his part, admitted that he had not been in the habit of keeping a regular account of his activities on behalf of the estate after he became the executor. He stated that he had been “advised and induced” by John D. Hathaway to become the executor and that Hathaway had offered his services as a friend in managing the property and he had thought that Hathaway was his friend. His father was not in debt to Hathaway at his death but did owe some amount to Whitwell, who was a Sunbury merchant. The estate had also made purchases from Whitwell and Whitwell had purchased some of the estate’s debts from other people. Bacon said that around January 1826, Hathaway had told him that the estate was about to have a levy against it because of suits by George W. Coe and John B. Gandry, and said that he would pay the judgments to prevent the sale of property if Bacon would give him cotton from the crop. Bacon agreed and Hathaway paid the judgments, then Bacon shipped 18.5 bales of Sea Island cotton to Messrs Bulloch & Dunwody in Savannah and told them to sell them and pay Hathaway the proceeds. Bacon complained that Hathaway never gave him any accounting for all of this. He added that in July 1826, Hathaway had bought “a negro named Sue” for $260 for Ann S. Harris, at her request, and that Bacon had partially paid him for her.
Bacon continued on to detail his dealings with Hathaway, as Hathaway became more and more involved in the estate’s affairs. In the early part of 1828, with Bacon living in Sunbury and Hathaway living with him as a boarder, Hathway told him he had been thinking up a plan to relieve the estate of its considerable debts. Hathaway urged Bacon to give him a number of small promissory notes. Hathaway, a Justice of the Peace, would bring them as a suit in his Court, “sell the greater part of the negroes of the estate, purchase them, and make titles to such persons as defendant should name.” Bacon objected that this would bring down the creditors on the balance of the estate’s property, but Hathaway promised he had taken measures to prevent this. Bacon said he told Hathaway he wanted to consult Samuel S. Law, his fellow executor, but Hathaway said he had already consulted him and that Law approved the plan and would sign the notes. Hathaway also said he would give Bacon 4 to 5 years to pay all that he owed him. Bacon then gave him 78 small notes in Whitwell’s name, so that Hathaway could bring them into his court. This happened, and resulted in 21 enslaved people from the estate being sold to pay the debts. Hathaway bought 11 of them for $2400 and allowed the others to be purchased by others for $1730 in cash. Bacon said he did not know what Hathaway did with the $1780, but he had allowed the 11 people he purchased to remain on Bacon’s plantation and Bacon had considered them part of the estate. Bacon said he had always considered Hathaway a friend and had never suspected anything of him until this sale, when Hathaway had allowed “a portion of said negroes to be sold to strangers, and did not purchase them himself, as he had most expressly promised to do,” without ever giving Bacon any accounting or explanation.
Bacon further said that he had sold 18 enslaved people belonging to the estate to satisfy a judgment in favor of the Darien Bank, and that three had been sold by the Sheriff for other judgments, and that three others and land on Colonel’s Island remained unsold but had been advertised for sale to satisfy other levies. He had also sold 130 acres of land to one Maxwell for $1000 as part of a Sheriff’s sale. While detailing other debts to Hathaway, he said he sold “a negro” to Mrs. Nelms.
Furwell, for his part, responded to the suit by saying that Thomas F. Bacon was indebted to him at the time of his death and that he had understood that the estate’s profits were not sufficient to pay the interest on its debts. He said that both John B. Bacon and Samuel S. Law were indebted to him personally, as well as as executors of the estate, and that he had never intended to mix those debts. He recounted in detail his dealings with the estate and with Hathaway, and noted that the purchasers of the enslaved people sold by the estate were John D. Hathaway, Joseph Jones, Samuel Wilkins and Paul H. Wilkins. He denied that this sale was fraudulent. He pointed out that two divisions of enslaved people belonging to the estate took place before the estate’s debts were paid; he did not know the exact number of the people drawn by the heirs in the second division but he did note that Ann S. Harris had drawn “a negro boy by the name of Ellick,” who she then sold to John D. Hathaway for $300. He further denied any improper dealings with which Harris’s suit was charging him. Whitwell appeared before J.P. Levy Jenny in Bristol, Massachusetts, on March 13, 1829, to swear that his testiomny was true.
Hathaway’s testimony stated that he had acted as Whitwell’s agent from 1823 to 1827, in Whitwell’s absence, and had accesss to his books. He also had acted as agents for others and kept records of his dealings on their behalf, but he himself kept no accounting of his own dealings. He said he had helped John B. Bacon out on a small matter in 1824, and after that, Bacon continued to ask him for help for various matters, both in his personal capacity and as estate executor, but those two roles had never been blended. He said that Samuel S. Law had continued to be consulted, and he denied that he had not given John B. Bacon anything in return for his notes.
With regard to the sale of the enslaved people of the estate, Hathaway said that when the Sheriff’s sale had been going to happen, both Bacon and Law had tried to persuade him, as a “monied” man, to “make some efforts to save the said negroes for the said estate,” because the crop currently growing would be lost without their labor. At their urging, he said, he agreed to help for at least that crop. He claimed to have made a written proposal to Samuel S. Law — and attached what he said was his best recollection of that — in which he offered to buy the enslaved people if they did not sell for too high a price, and let them be returned to the plantation as long as the executors refunded him one half the purchase price with interest on January 1, 1829, and the other half with interest on January 1, 1830. If they sold at prices beyond their value, he was not to purchase but was to lend the executors $2000 to enable them to pay off a judgment against the estate in favor of the bank of Darien.
Both Law and Bacon happily agreed, he said. He said he attended the sale and purchased “eleven of the said negroes, of which six were grown, and five were children” for $2440, which was more than he wanted to bid but he was urged to do so by Law and Bacon, who were there. He said eight others were purchased, three by Joseph Jones, three by Samuel Wilkins, and two by Paul H. Wilkins, for a total of $2323, which was more than he was prepared to bid and more than he thought they were worth.
He said he considered the 11 people he purchased to be his property, and that he was entitled to them or to a refund of the money with interest, which the executors have not done. He added that that after a judgment against the estate for the Bank of Darien, it had purchased 12 or 15 of the enslaved people of the estate, who were also returned to the estate under the same terms as he himself had agreed with the executors.
He denied any fraud by himself and also said everything he did regarding the sale was not only known by but agreed to by the complainant, Ann S. Harris. He said that after the sale she expressed her disappointment that he had not bought them all. As part of his testimony, Hathaway also said that he believed that the people divided out of the estate to Thomas D. Bacon had been removed from Liberty County. He also noted that the boy Ellick and a girl, his sister, were drawn in the second division by Ann S. Harris, and she later sold the girl to Mrs. Nelms, and the boy to Hathaway for $300. He denied that Ellick was sold to him by John B. Bacon.
Hathaway presented the following exhibits to the court:
A: His recollection of the agreement with Bacon and Law over his purchase of the enslaved people at the Sheriff’s sale
B: a copy of the deed of conveyance from the Sheriff of Liberty County to Hathaway after the public sale of Patty, Leah, Joe, Jack, Peggy, Sharper, Juba, Mary, Robert, Jacob and Ben, showing that Hathaway had purchased them for $2448, dated June 3, 1828.
C: a copy of a deed of conveyance from Ann S. Harris to John D. Hathaway for the purchase of “a negro slave named Ellick, being a boy about fifteen years of age,” for $300. Dated February 1, 1823. Witnessed by F.R. Whitwell.
D: Transfer of a judgment against John B. Bacon as executor from John B. Gandry to J.D. Hathaway.
E. Bills of sale for the cotton
In response to Hathaway’s testimony, Ann Harris stated that her complaint was true and Hathaway’s answer was untrue.
The special jury assigned to the case decreed in the December Term 1833 that the judgments on 91 notes given to F.R. Whitwell by John B. Bacon as executor of his father’s estate, were to be set aside, as was the sale made based on the judgments, “and that the eleven negroes purchased by J.D. Hathaway, together with their issue, be returned to the legal Ex’or of the Est. of Thomas F. Bacon, to be administered by him as in duty bound.”
Source: Superior Court Record Book (1833-1840), Vol. 4, Liberty County, Georgia, page 43-75 database with images, “Liberty County Superior Court Proceedings, 1833-1842,” part 1 of 2 in “Liberty County Superior Court Proceedings 1833-1855,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-QR44 : accessed 19 June 2024), Family History Library Film 008628085, image 28-44 of 658.