Will Summary:
Testator: Lewis Hines, Liberty County, State of Georgia
Bequests:
“In the name of God – Amen!”
-
Wishes all his debts be paid as soon after his death and probate of the will as can be done, and to this purpose he authorizes his executors “to sell and dispose of upon the best terms and to the greatest advantage a number of my negroes not exceeding forty – resort being first had to those negroes with their increase which I purchased from the estate of the late Ann Pray and afterwards if it shall be necessary to any other negroes out of my estate which my executors may in their discretion select.” Wishes his estate to be kept together until all his debts are paid “and the negroes as above stated are only to be sold to prevent sacrifices of property from the want or deficiency of proceeds to meet the payment of my just debts.”
-
After his son John Pray Hines reaches 21, and after the estate’s debts are paid, he is to receive “my summer residence called and known as ‘Belmont’ and the other adjoining tract of land and settlement called and known as ‘Yemassee’ to him and his heirs forever and also all and singular the negro slaves with their issue and increase which I acquired by marriage with the mother of the said John Pray Hines, my late beloved wife Mary Jane Pray Hines formerly Mary Jane Pray ? Sleigh ? with the exception of my carpenter fellow John in whose place I give & substitute my negro Stephen on account of his intermarriage with the gang of negroes” mentioned in this item.
-
All the rest of his estate, both real and personal, after the payment of his debts is given to his wife “Ann Maria Hines and her children Benjamin T. Hines, James C. Hines, Lewis E. Hines, Thomas A. Hines, Georgia C. Hines, Mary Jane Hines, Drucilla [alt: Drusilla] Ann Hines, Victoria A. Hines, William C. Hines, Edward H. Hines” and any other children his wife may have “during the ordinary period of gestation” after his death or during his life. Wishes that his said wife may have her separate share of the property devised in this section at any time after the payment of his debts, and his children shall have their shares when his wife – or executors in the case of her death – see it fit.
Executors: wife Ann Maria Hines, brother Charlton Hines. If they should be deceased, then it would be his son John Pray Hines and his friends William J. Way and Edward J. Harden.
Date signed: 4 October 1840
Witnesses: Luke Mann, Sarah Baker, Henry Saunders
Probated by Samuel Baker on 2 November 1840
Recorded 23 November 1840
See original will at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93L-GCSN?i=581&wc=9SYT-PT5%3A267679901%2C268032901&cc=1999178