BEDFORD COUNTY, TN - COURT - George W. Fogleman vs William Sharp, Martin Hancock & Samuel Hancock ----¤¤¤---- Chancery Court Settlement Book "B" 1848-1851 Pages 626-629 George W. Fogleman ¦ vs ¦ Original Bill William Sharp ¦ Filed 13th August 1846 Martin Hancock ¦ & Samuel Hancock ¦ To the Honl. Bromfield L. Ridley-Chancellor, &c Your orator Geroge W. Fogleman, a citizen of Bedford county would respectfully represent to your Honor that on the 10th day of December 1845 he recovered in the Circuit Court of Bedford Count a judgment against one William Sharp, also a citizen of said County, for the sum of Eight hundred and ten dollars & 34 cents, besides nine dollars and 44 cents costs of suit, upon which an execution has issued and has been returned by the Sheriff of Bedford County "no property to be found of defendant Sharp, upon which to levy the same," which judgment is still in full force, none of it having been paid, or satisfied. Your orator states that said Sharp conveyed by deed, which was registered on the 16th day of August 1842, three hundred and seventeen acres of land, for the consideration as expressed in said deed, of five thousand four hundred dollars, to Martin and Samuel Hancock; and that on the same or next day he also conveyed to Samuel Hancock another tract for the sum of as expressed in said deed of Six hundred dollars, containing 62 acres. He also about the same time conveyed all his slaves, either to said Hancocks, or to one (blank) Hancock, the sd. Martin and Samuel Hancock being brothers-in-law of said Sharp & (blank) Hancock being his sister-in-law. Your orator further states that said Sharp at the time was embarrassed in his pecuniary circumstances and was sued for large amounts; some of which were on his contracts and some for his trespasses. Your orator charges that all of said conveyances were made to hinder, delay and defraud the creditors of said Sharp, and especially so in regard to the sale of the 317 acre tract, which your orator expressly charges was made without consideration and was voluntary and therefore fraudulent and void, or if any consideration was in fact agreed to be given it was the notes of the said Martin and Samuel, which were to be held by said Sharp as a color or pretense to keep his creditors off sd. tract of land. And among the various reasons and facts that establishes this proposition, your orator will mention that said Hancocks were now in moderate circumstances, and not able to purchase and pay for so large an amount of property, that said Sharp has lived on said tract of land and cultivated it as he did before he pretended to have sold the same, and that one of them stated to your orator after he had purchased said tract of land, whilst said Sharp was absent on business, that he would lose by sd. Sharp, for that he was liable for said Sharp as his security, which could not be so if he had bought the land in good faith, and owed the purchase money therefore. Said tract of land lies in the County of Bedford in Civil District No. 1, and on which said Sharp then and still lives. Your orator states he does not know if said purchase should turn out to be fair and bona fide, and that there is any of the purchase money thereof still due-your orator however is advised and believes that should there be any of the purchase money still due that it is liable to be applied to the payment of your orators judgment & execution aforesaid. Your orator states that said Sharp said to your orator that he had given up on said Hancocks two of their notes, each for about the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. In tender consideration of the premises and for as much as your orator is only relievable in this Honorable Court, your orator prays that said Sharp and said Martin & Samuel Hancock, the former living in Bedford, the latter in Coffee County, be made defendants-and for all necessary process to bring said defendants before the Court and that all of said defendants answer all the facts, allegations and charges herein contained, as fully as though here again repeated in the form of interrogatories, without evasion or equivocation, to the best of their knowledge, information and belief, and particularly that said Sharp answer whether he did not convey said tract of land of 317 acres to said Martin & Samuel Hancock to avoid the payment of any or all of his debts? And what particular debt or debts he intended to avoid the payment of, if it was not to avoid the payment of all of his debts, and what consideration they agreed to pay for said land? Whether it was paid in cash or how it was paid; if on credit, what credit that was, and if notes were given, if they were not given as a mere pretence to cover up said land from his creditors to be given up to the makers thereof when it should suit their convenience to do so, or when the said pretended sale should have accomplished its purposes-and whether any of the purchases money is yet due, and if so how much and when it fell due, or is to fall due-and that said Hancocks answer how they come to purchase said tract of land and other property? What they were to give for the same? Whether they paid for the land at the time they purchased it? Or whether they purchased it on a credit, and if so on what credit? And whether the notes were not given to cover the land up from said Sharp's creditors to be handed back to them when said Sharp should get out of his difficulties, and whether said Sharp has not given them back a portion of said notes, without any payment thereon, and if so how many and what amount-and that they state where they got their means to purchase so large an amount of property and pay for it? And how with their means they are able to buy so valuable a tract of land and lie (out?) of the use the same, and that they answer where they have got the money to pay for said tract of land or any portion thereof? And that at the hearing of this cause your honor will decree that the sale of sd. 317 acre tract was made to cheate(sic), hinder and delay & defraud the creditors of said Sharp, and that the same is void; and that said tract of land be sold to pay your orator's debt; and that should your Honor believe sd. sale to be fair, that your Honor will decree that whatever of the purchase money is yet due be subjected to the payment of your orators debt-and that your orators claim against said purchase money may be effectual, he prays that said parties be enjoined from paying or collecting a sufficiency thereof to pay your orators debts and costs-and that on the hearing your Honor will decree all such other & further relief as may be authorized by the facts of the case, and the rules of a Court of Equity-there has been no other application for an Injunction in this cause- Wm H. Wisener-Solicitor Transcribed by Dan S. Sharp from a copy of the original, 5 May 2003 ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Dan S. Sharp dansharp@adelphia.net ___________________________________________________________________