Edgecombe County, NC - Thigpen vs Belfour, 1812 ----¤¤¤---- Submitted by Grace Williamson Turner. Copied as closely as possible from original. Original spelling and punctuation retained. Source: Supreme Court Case, #232, Thigpen vs Belfour, 1812 (see the original case at the Archives for more of this case). Halifax District In Equity To the Honorable the Judge of the Court of Equity of the District of Halifax The Bill of Complaint of Lemuel Thigpen of the County of Edgcombe humbly sheweth that on or about the thirty first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & ninety six your Orator became bound as a Security for & jointly with one Greenbery Causey then of the said County in an Obligation to one Joseph Stringer also then of the said County for the payment to him the said Joseph of forty two silver dollars & one half dollar on or before the 25th day of December then next ensuing, which Sum became due to the said Joseph by him the said Causey for the purchase of a Mare. Your Orator further sheweth that some time after executing the said obligation the said Stringer moved to the State of Georgia & the said Causey moved to the County of Pitt some thirty or forty miles from the residence of your orator who not living in the neighborhood of the said Stringer before he moved to Georgia heard nothing more of the said obligation until some time about the month of March in the year 1804 when William Balfour of the County of Edgcombe aforesaid Esquire, presented the same to your orator & demanded payment thereof. Your orator further sheweth that he understands & believes that the said Stringer died some time after moving to Georgia & a certain Joseph Ruffin of the said County of Edgcombe, a man of but very little if any worth either in character or property, went to Georgia & searching among the papers of the deceased, found the said obligation & returning with it to Edgcombe County sold or pretended to sell the same to the said Balfour who upon applying to your orator for payment thereof as aforesaid threatened to commence first thereon against him unless he would either pay off the amount of the principal & Interest due upon the said obligation or give a new note for the same, which your orator consented to do, fearing that should a suit be commenced he would be distressed before he would raise the money to satisfy the said obligation. Your orator accordingly gave to the said Balfour his note or obligation bearing date the 23d March 1804 for the amount of the principal & Interest of the said debt, being as was stated to him the sum of £30.9.8 payable on demand as well as he recollects with Interest from the date & took in the old obligation with which he applied to the said Causey & demanded payment thereof, which he refused alleging that he had paid off the said obligation soon after giving it by returning to the said Stringer the said Mare & giving him half a barrel of Corn, upon which the said Stringer promised to deliver up the said obligation, which he neglected to do but afterwards informed him that he had destroyed it, notwithstanding this information, your orator commenced suit against the said Causey in the County Court of Pitt County to recover of him the amount of his note aforesaid & the said suit still remains at issue in the said Court, but your orator despairs of effecting a recovery against him because he finds upon inquiry that it is true that the said Causey discharged the said obligation in the manner stated by him, of which the said Balfour was informed as your orator believes, notwithstanding which he commenced suit against your orator upon the note given by him as aforesaid in the County Court of Edgcombe aforesaid to last May term & the same is still depending in that Court. Your orator further states that he has just cause to believe that the said Ruffin never paid one farthing for the said obligation, of which he had no indorsement from any one, but there appears upon the said original obligation which your orator has ready to produce an endorsement from the said Ruffin to Balfour but your orator does not know what the said Balfour gave the said Ruffin for the said obligation, but has understood that what he paid him was partly in an old debt due by the said Ruffin which no doubt the said Balfour considered desperate. Your orator avers that after the said Stringer moved to Georgia he fully believed that the said obligation had been discharged & that your orator never should be called upon in regard to it & that he never knew or believed to the contrary until the said Balfour applied to him for payment as aforesaid, which he consented to make from a belief at that time that the said obligation was still due & from a fear that he should be distressed with a suit as aforesaid. After the suit had been commenced as aforesaid against your orator, he informed the said Balfour that he could probe that the original obligation aforesaid had been paid off & demanded of him to deliver up the note which your orator gave him as aforesaid, threatening to apply to this Honorable Court for redress should he refuse to do so And your orator well hoped that the said Balfour would have complied with this reasonable request But now so it is that the said William Balfour combining & confederating to & with the said Joseph Ruffin how to cheat & affray your orator, refuses to deliver up his said note & prosecute the said suit in which no doubt at the next term of the said Court he will obtain Judgment reason of the rigid rules of the common L(aw) which admits not as your orator is advised of your orators defending himself upon the equitable merits of his case aforesaid. Your orator being therefore without redress except before your Honor in Equity prays that the said Balfour & Ruffin may be summoned in due form before the Court to answer the premisses and to do & stand to your Honors Decree therein May it please your Honor also to grant your orator a writ of Injunction against the said Balfour enjoyning him from poceeding any further with his said suit at Law until the merits of the case can be fully heard in Equity And that he may have such relief generally in the premisses as the nature of his case entitles him to and he will ever pray &c. Lemuel Thigpen Halifax District Lemuel Thigpen maketh oath that the several matters of fact stated by him in the aforegoing Bill as facts within his own (k)nowledge are true & the others he believes to (be) true. Sworn to before me Lemuel Thigpen at Halifax Oct'r 28th 1805 Jno. Hall JSCLC State of North Carolina Oct.: 28th 1805 The Clerk and Master of the Court of Equity for Halifax district will let an injunction & sp'a issue agreeable to the prayer of the within bill (except that the Plt at law has leave to proceed to Judgment) upon complainants entering into bond with secureties agreeable to law in doubt the sum for which the note complained of & on which suit is depending against him was given conditioned to be void upon complainants paying the full amount of said note with Interest & costs into court in case this injunction shall be desolved & further abiding such order & decree as shall be made in the Premisses. Jno. Hall JSCLC By leave of the Court the Complainant amends this Bill by averring as he does that the obligation mentioned in the Bill was one under his seal & was signed sealed & delivered by him to the Defendant as his act & deed. Blake Baker for Comp't ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Grace Williamson Turner ___________________________________________________________________