CASWELL COUNTY, NC - WILLS - Mary Berry Probate
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Caswell Co NC Court Papers in the name of Mary Berry and bearing the date 
1889, but including documents dated as early as 1 August 1887, contain a 
deposition alluding to the time of Mary Berry's death. This court action was 
brought by J[ames] R[obert] Soyars administrator of the estate of Mary Berry 
deceased intestate, plaintiff, against W. W. Siddle, "administrator" [which he 
denied, though he admitted being executor] of the estate of Antiochus Boswell 
deceased testator, defendant. The plaintiff, Soyars [who was Mary Berry's 
nephew, son of her late sister Elizabeth Berry Soyars], deposed that the "said 
Antiochus Boswell was duly appointed and qualified as guardian of said Mary 
Berry one ____ day of _________ [sic - no dates were ever supplied - but this 
was ca 1849] and as such guardian became indebted to the said Mary Berry on 
the ____ day of ____ 18__ in the sum of 444.00 dollars." The defendant, 
Siddle, then deposed that the foregoing statement was true and "that 
after the plaintiff's intestate [Mary Berry] arrived at the age of 21 years, 
the said Antiochus Boswell paid off and settled his liabilities as her 
guardian with her and therefore plead payment to this action [sic]", and "that 
after the plaintiff's intestate [Mary Berry] arrived at her majority, she 
lived and boarded with the defendant's testator [Antiochus Boswell] to the 
time of her death, about five years, the most of which time she was sick and 
helpless, the defendant's testator having her cared for and waited on at 
considerable expense and trouble, which is reasonably worth and for which a 
charge of one hundred and fifty dollars per year is made and is pleaded by the 
defendant as a counter-claim to the plaintiff's cause of action." Mary Berry 
was 12 in the 1850 US Census, in the household of Antiochus Boswell, and she 
was 21 in the 1860 US Census, also in the household of A. Boswell. So her year 
of birth was about 1838, and the year in which she reached her majority of age 
21 years was about 1859 or 1860, and the year of her death "five years" later 
would have been about 1864 or 1865. A jury was empanelled in the Spring 1889 
court session of Caswell Co NC and found in favour of the plaintiff and 
ordered that the defendant Siddle pay the plaintiff J. R. Soyars $350.00 plus 
costs.