Clarke-Oglethorpe County GaArchives Court.....Doggett, George March 4, 1844 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ken Doggett kendoggett2000@yahoo.com March 8, 2006, 9:59 pm Source: Clarke County Courthouse, Archives, Box 103, Folder 156 & Box 12, Folder 37 Written: March 4, 1844 Recorded: April 5, 1852 [selected entries from early hearings to administer estate] Georgia Inferior Court Sitting for Ordinary purposes this Oglethorpe County March the 4th 1844 - Present their Honors William Lumpkin, Henry Jordan, and George F. Platt and Willis Willingham Justices - estate of George Doggett deceased The petition of Royal M. Fleming to be appointed administrator of George Doggett deceased, being contested by William Doggett, Thomas Doggett Jesse Kinnie, husband of Fanny Kinnie, Oliver Higginbottom, husband of Nancy Higginbottom, Elizabeth Daniel, widow in her own right and Betsy Morton, widow in her own right as first Cousins and only next of kin of deceased & their kinship not being known to the Court the case is adjourned or continued to next term. Georgia Inferior Court Sitting for Ordinary purposes Present Oglethorpe County their Honors William Lumpkin, John Crawford, Henry Jordan, and Willis Willingham Justices - this 5th day of May 1844. Estate of George Doggett deceased This case being brought up before the Court, said case being continued from last Court - the Case being argued on both sides, that is to say one side in favour of the Kin so said, for having the administration of said estate the other against it, but finally laid over until next term. Georgia Court of Ordinary met according to adjourn Oglethorpe County ment this 1st day of July 1844 - Present their Honors William Lumpkin, Henry Jordan, Willis Wellingham, and Geo F. Platt Justices - The estate of George Doggett deceased having been laid over at last term now being taken up and argued considerably with regard to who should be entitled to the Administration upon said estate - to which the Court after considering the matter, Ordered the Administration to be granted to Ransom A. Whitehead of Clarke County - [a listing of Court approved receipts and payouts follows, stretching from July 1844 into the January 1849 term, and at some point it was all transferred to Clarke County. In 1850 a protest came from Charles L. Neely, claiming to be a nephew of George Doggett, in a seven-page hand-written letter, a transcript of which follows. Brackets [] indicate a word that was unreadable; a question mark (?) following a word indicates that the word used is a guess, and the closest match to the handwritten appearance and context. Georgia To the Honorable james Jackson Judge Clarke County of the Superior Courts of the Western District of said State. Humbly complaining shewish unto your Honor your Orator Charles L. Neely that on the [blank] day of [blank] Eighteen hundred and forty [blank] George Doggett of the county of Oglethorpe and said state departed this life intestate leaving a considerable real and personal estate, and that on the first day of July Eighteen hundred and forty four by and before the Honorable Inferior Court of said county of Oglethorpe and said state sitting for Ordinary purposes administration in the Estate of said George Doggett deceased was granted to Ransom A. Whitehead of this county and state first aforesaid, who took upon himself said administration and possessed himself of thie entire estate of said deceased amounting in value to the sum of three thousand dollars or other large sum. Since his appointment as such administrator has removed his proceedings on said Estate to said county of Clarke, and your Orator further sheweth that as the nephew of the half blood in the matrilineal line of said George Doggett deceased and as the only person in existence standing in that degree or any nearer degree of relationship to said deceased, he has filed his Bill against said Ransom A. Whitehead Administrator as aforesaid for the recovery of the entire estate of said deceased in his hands which Bill was returnable to the February Term 1850 of the Honorable the Superior Court of said county of Clarke and said state, and which is now pending in said Court. And your Orator further sheweth that Sanford Whitehead of said county of Clarke and said state has commenced his action of [] to the said February term 1850 of said Superior Court [] [] against the said Ransom A. Whitehead, administrator, as aforesaid, returnable to the said February term 1850 which is now pending in Superior Court for the recovery of the sum of fifteen hundred dollars besides interest founded upoin a promissory note under seal purporting to have been made by the said George Doggett then in life on the twentieth day of July Eighteen hundred and thirty-seven and having date this day and year and aforesaid payable to Mrs. Elizabeth Marshall as bearer & was in this final day of January Eighteen Hundred and fifty with interest from date and which note is most particularly described in the declaration therein of said Sanford against said Ransom A. and your Orator further sheweth and expressly charges that said note is not now paid [some deletions, losing the thread of the narration] was not at the time of the death of said George Doggett all(?) outstanding and subjecting debt against the estate, but that the same was in the possession of said George at the time of his death and was found among his papers after his death, by the said Ransom A. Whitehead in taking(?) possession of his estate papers and effects as his administrator, and that this same note came to the possession of the said Sanford Whitehead by the contrivance management or agency directly or indirectly of said Ransom A. Whitehead and without the said Sandford ever paying any valuable consideration therefor, which note with interest therein now amounts to more than the estate of said George now in the hands of said administrator. And your Orator further charges that the said action of said Sanford against said Ransom A. as administrator aforesaid founded on said note is fraudulent and collusive as between the said Sanford and Ransom A. & that the said Ransom A. has not nor does not intend fairly and honestly to defend the same, but intends fraudulently and collusively to suffer a recovery to be had therein in order to absorb the entire estate of said George Doggett deceased and to divide the same between himself and the said Sanford, and thus and thusly fraudulently to defeat and prevent your Orator from receiving said Estate or any part thereof. By this said bill against said Ransom A. Whitehead administrator as aforesaid in tender consideration whereof and for that your Orator is remediless at and by the strict rules of the common(?) and is only believable in a Court of Equity when matters of this sort are profoundly(?) cognizable as this, and therefore that the said Ransom A. Whitehead and the said Sanford Whitehead and the rest of the confederates when discovered may express their several and respective confessal oaths full truth direct and perfect answers make according to the best of their respective knowledge information remembrance and belief to all and singular the matter and charges aforesaid as fully in every respect as if the same was then again replicated and they thereto particularly investigated(?) and especially that the said Ransom A. Whitehead and Sanford Whitehead according to the best of their knowledge and each of them their remembrance information and belief answer and say who is Elizabeth Marshall the payee named in said note and whether she is dead or alive? If alive where she lives and if dead when and where she died and whether there has ever been any address location in her estate and if so who administered and when and where and whether or not said note met(?) into the hands of her executor or administrator and wheteher or not it traded or transferred by said Elizabeth or her executor or administrator and which to who, and for what purpose or consideration and where at what time and in whose possession did they the said Ransom A. and Sanford each first see said note and when did each of them first learn(?) of it and from whom, and particularly that they the said Ransom A. and Sanford answer and say according to the best of their [] each of their knowledge remembrance information and belief [line unreadable] from whom said Sanford received said note, furher, what he paid or is to pay for it, and from this individual from whom he got it, came by it or said he came by it, and to whom is this money to go if said Sanford recovers in his said action therein and how much of what kind of interest they and each of them have in said note as a recovery therein, and your Orator prays that there be permitted to use this and may in this trial(?) of his Bill aforesaid against said Ransom A. Whitehead administrator as aforesaid, and that the said Sanford Whitehead may be enjoined from further prosecuting his said action of [] aforesaid against said Ransom A. Whitehead administrator as aforesaid until they have fully answered this your Orator's bill and your Orator had well hoped that said Ransom A. would have fairly administered said Estate and would have paid over to your Orator as the sole distributor of said George Doggett deceased, the whole of said Estate now in his hands upon your Orator's fairly and legally establishing his right thereto upon this hearing and adjudication of your Orator's said bill. But now so it is may it please your Honor the said Ransom A. Whitehead administrator & the said Sanford Whitehead combining and(?) confederating together to be with diverse other persons as yet to your Orator unknown whose names when discerned your Orator prays may be made parties defendants thereto with apt words to charge them there to injure and defraud your Orator and inventing many and diverse schemes and strategies to defeat your orator's claim to said estate of said George Doggett deceased [line unreadable] and that if there is they [] be nothing left of said estate for your Orator or any other heir after paying the debts of said deceased now knowing as the trustee is that there was no just and honest debt now outstanding against said deceased all which acting and doing and pretenses of the said confederates and contrary to right equity and good conscience and tend to the manifest wrong(?) and injury of your Orator and until the final hearing trial and adjudication of your Orator's other said Bill against said Ransom A. Whitehead administrator as aforesaid and until the further order of this Honorable Court and that your Orator may have such other and further rediscovery and relief as the motion of his case requires. May it please your Honor to grant unto your Orator the states writ of subjungere(?) to be directed to the said Ransom A. Whitehead Administrator of said George Doggett deceased and to said Sanford Whitehead thereof commanding them and each of them under a certain penalty therein to be imposed personally to [] and offices of the Superior Court to be held in said county of Clarke on the second Monday in August next there and then to answer the processes(?) and to stand to and abide such answer and decree therein as to your Honor should seem agreeable to equity and good conscience and your Orator will ever pray. G.B. Haygood & Asa M. Jackson [another, much shorter note by Charles L. Neely was included in the file but it was virtually unreadable; the few decipherable words added no critical information. His contesting of the administration of the estate was either ignored or handled in a way that was not mentioned in the file documents. Documents may also be missing. The next dated document was a pre-printed form with a fill-in format providing for the administration of the estate as follows:] Administrator's Bond ------------------------- Banner Print - Athens GEORGIA Clarke COUNTY KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That we Ransom A. Whitehead and Bradford Spinks are held and firmly bound unto his Honor, Asa M. Jackson the Ordinary of said County, for the time being, and his successors in office, in the just and full sum of eight thousand Dollars; for the payment of which sum to the said Ordinary, and his successors in office, we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, in the whole and for the whole sum, jointly and severally, firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals, and dated this 5th day of April 1852 THE CONDITION OF THE ABOVE OBLIGATION IS SUCH, That if the above bound Ransom A. Whitehead Administrator of the goods, chattels, rights, credits, lands and tenements of George Doggett deceased do make a true and perfect inventory of all and singular the goods, chattels, rights -- [written above the line: "not already inventoried & returned"] -- [stricken out: "lands and tenements"] of said deceased, which have or shall come to the hands, possession or knowledge of the said Ransom A. Whitehead or into the hands or possession of any other person or persons for him; and the same, so made do exhibit to the Court of Ordinary of said county; when he shall be thereunto required; and such goods, chattels, rights, credits, lands and tenements, do well and truly administer according to law, and do make a just and true account of his actings and doings thereon, when requred by the said Court of Ordinary of said county. And all the rest of the goods, chattels, rights, credits, lands and tenements which shall be found remaining upon th(e) account of the said Administrator, the same being first allowed by the said Court, shall deliver and pay to such persons respectively, as are entitled to the same by law. And if it shall hereafter appear that any last will and testament was made by the said deceased, and the same be proved before the Court, and the Executors obtain a certificate of the probate thereof, and the said Ransom A. Whitehead do, in such case, if required, render and deliver up said letters of Administration, then this obligation to be void, else remain in full force. [handwritten:] The erasures & intertruncations(?) made before approved by the Court SIGNED, SEALED AND ACKNOWLEDGED in my presence and approved by [] Ransom A. Whitehead Asa M. Jackson Ordinary Bradford H. Spinks File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/clarke/court/doggett50nwl.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/ File size: 15.3 Kb