Greene County, NC - Sheppard vs. Glasgow, 1814 Case #79, SHEPPARD vs. GLASGOW, 1814 Edgecombe Co., NC, Court Minures, May 25, 1779: BENJAMIN SHEPPARD appointed guardian to his own children: CATHERINE, MARY, NANCY & BETSY (Betsy marked through) ELIZABETH SHEPPARD for them to receive their share of the estate of their grandfather SAMUEL RUFFIN, deceased... And again: Feb. 27, 1782: BENJAMIN SHEPPARD appointed guradian of his children CATHARINE, MARY, ANNE, & ELIZABETH SHEPPARD for estate to them by the death of SARAH & GRAY RUFFIN. From N.C. Supreme Court Original Cases, Case #79, SHEPPARD vs. GLASGOW, 1814 N.C., Greene County - Equity Docket, Oct. term 1814 JAMES G. SHEPPARD & Others vs JAMES GLASGOW & Others. Original Bill 1811. Your orators, JAMES GLASGOW SHEPPARD, BENJAMIN C.D.B. SHEPPARD, & ABRAM SHEPPARD, infants, by their guardian, the said James G. Sheppard, show that BENJAMIN SHEPPARD your orators father died intestate some time in or about the month of October 1798 possessed of a very large real & personal estate. That administration of his estate was granted to JAMES GLASGOW and MARTHA JONES SHEPPARD, his widow, who entered into bond with WILLIAM SPEIGHT & MARTIN G. SHEPPARD their securities for the faithful administration of the estate. MARTIN G. SHEPPARD has gone to Georgia & is insolvent. WILLIAM SPEIGHT died intestate sometime in 1802 & adm. of his estate was granted to SAMUEL SPEIGHT who afterwards died & no administration de bonus non of the estate of the sd. WILLIAM SPEIGHT has since been granted, but the whole of his estate has gone into the hands & possession of WILLIAM VINES SPEIGHT & JESSE SPEIGHT, under the following circumstances, to wit. SETH SPEIGHT, their father being about to make his will & divide his property among his children, the sd. WILLIAM his brother, advised him to give his property to his other children for that he, WILLIAM, intended to leave his estate to the sd WM VINES & JESSE SPEIGHT, & to induce him to do so promised him that if he would give his property to his other children that he WILLIAM would leave all his estate to the sd. WILLIAM VINES & JESSE his sons, upon which he the sd. SETH did by his will give his property to his other children, whereupon the sd WILLIAM V. SPEIGHT & JESSE SPEIGHT after the death of the sd WILLIAM (Speight) commenced action agst the administrators of the sd WILLIAM & recovered judgments to the full amount of his estate & his estate accordingly all sold under execution to satisfy said judgments & all purchased in by the said WILLIAM V. & JESSE, whereby the said WM V. & JESSE, as your orators are advised, are liable to the debts of the said WILLIAM as aforesaid. Your orators further charge that the sd JAMES (Glasgow) & MARTHA admrs took into their possession the whole personal estate of their intestate to a very great amount & more than sufficient to have paid all his debts but which has been so mismanaged that the real estate has been sold under executions agst the estate at a great under value. The said BENJAMIN SHEPPARD left eight children who were his heirs and next of kin, to wit, CATHARINE now the wife of BENJAMIN EVANS, MARY GRAY who died leaving two children her heirs, to wit, JOHN B. CASWELL & ELIZABETH LOVICK whose guardian is WILLIAM LOVICK, ANN HAYWOOD the wife of WM. HENRY HAYWOOD, ELIZABETH the wife of THEOPHILUS EDWARDS, FEREBE G. PASTEUR who has died without issue, and your orators, his youngest children. All the children of the sd BENJAMIN SHEPPARD except FEREBE & your orators were advanced by the sd BENAJMIN in his lifetime by gifts of personal property equal to their full shares of his personal estate. And the said CATHARINE was also advanced by gifts of real estate to her full share. Your orators further shew that the sd MARTHA administratrix intermarried with JOSEPH SCURLOCK & the said JAMES & JOSEPH & MARTHA adminstrators greatly mismanaged the estate by making improper sales thereof & by suffering judgments agst the estate when nothing was really due. Your orators charge that a judgment was suffered agst the estate on behalf of STOKELY DONELSON a son-in-law of the sd JAMES (Glasgow) without his knowing anything of it and when in fact the said STOKELY had ack. to the sd JOSEPH that there was nothing due to him from the estate. Another judgment was recovered by the admrs. of JOHN MARTIN another son-in-law of the said JAMES (Glasgow) & whereas your orators believe nothing was due. A large sum of money has been received by the said JAMES on a bond of JOHN B. ASHE dec'd of which no account whatsoever has been rendered. Your orators further shew that in the suits of DONELSON MARTIN'S admrs had prevailed with the plaintiffs to have the plea of fully administered found in their favor. Your orators charge that sd JAMES (Glasgow) knowing that upon an investigation it would appear that he was greatly indebted to the estate & with a view to stifle all further inquery & to screen himself from payment of the judgments, the sd JAMES purchased in all the shares of the children of both real & personal estate except your orators who were infants. THEOPHILUS EDWARDS, husband of one of the daughters, combining & confederating with the sd JAMES how to bring about a sale of the lands by the execution at a great undervalue & thereby defraud your orators who were infants....therefore came to an agreement with JAMES (Glasgow) to sell his wife's share for sum of $500 but in truth in consideration of & under fraudulent agreement to enable JAMES to screen himself...& to favour the sd THEOPHILUS & enable him to purchase at a great undervalue two tracts of land, to wit, 1 tract of 4,000 acres called the dower tract & another tract commonly called the Mill Seat. THEOPHILUS & JAMES had an agreement that THEOPHILUS should have the lands at $2500 & JAMES should pay whatever the lands might sell for over & above the sd sum, when in fact the lands were worth more than $10,000. Your orators further charge that the sd JAMES & THEOPHILUS prevailed upon the former guardian (note: Alexander Kilpatrick) of your orators to resign & the sd JAMES (Glasgow) was appointed in his place. JAMES having purchased & being owner of all the shares of the heirs except your orators, & being your orators guardian...he readily procured a verdict in his favour on the plea...there being none to oppose it & being the interest of the plaintiffs to allow it. Upon these judgments executions issued & were levied on the lands aforesaid & a day of sale being advertised, the sheriff a relation of the said THEOPHILUS [Note: probably Sheriff Graves Bright 1794-1798] was prevailed upon to set the whole dower land up together, when if it had been sold in parcels less than one half would have been sold for enough to satisfy the executions. The Mill tract also sold & the whole of these two tracts sold for less than one fourth of their value.... Your orators further charge that THOMAS EDWARDS & WILLIAM EDWARDS were confederates with JAMES & THEOPHILUS. The orators want the said parties to appear & answer. They also want William Vines Speight & Jesse Speight to stand on their securities, & the sale of sd lands may be rescinded & your orators may be restored to their shares thereof. James G. Sheppard signed, & sworn to 21 Sept 1811. Copy from the original, October 31, 1814 Attest. R.J.Powell, C.M.E. The demurrer of THOMAS EDWARDS, WILLIAM EDWARDS, THEOPHILUS EDWARDS, WILLIAM V. SPEIGHT & JESSE SPEIGHT five of the defendants to the Bill of Complaint of JAMES G. SHEPPARD (ETC)... The defendants say that it appears by the said Bill that the same is exhibited agst these defendants and JAMES GLASGOW & JOSEPH SCURLOCK & WIFE. They also say the Complainants bill was spun out to a great length & by mingling defendants & causes in one bill they will be put to unreasonable & unnecessary charges. They humbly demand the judgement of the Court as to whether they shall be compelled to make further or other answer. April term 1812. The Supreme Court filed in above Case 4 December 1816, "settled by the parties...." ______________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Ruth Fentress - ruthbf@erols.com ______________________________________________________________________