Will of James Graham, 1813

In the name of God Amen

Decem­ber the twen­ty Eighth one Thou­sand Eight hun­dred and twelve. –

I James Gra­ham of Mon­roe Coun­ty and State of Vir­ginia being far advanced in years and the decays of nature fast approach­ing but of a Sound and dis­pos­ing mem­o­ry do con­sid­er it my duty to reg­u­late my world­ly affairs with my Fam­i­ly which is in man­ner fol­low­ing, that is to say, I rec­om­mend and give my Soul to Almighty God from whom I received it, and my body to the Earth from which it was tak­en noth­ing doubt­ing but that I shall receive them again at the gen­er­al Res­ur­rec­tion of the Dead. –

First it is my desire that all my debts be first paid out of my Estate.

I give and Bequeath to my beloved wife Flo­rence Gra­ham her liv­ing on the land on which I now live dur­ing her nat­ur­al life, with as much of Cat­tle as she shall think prop­er to keep, her choice of the hors­es for her use, and to work the land, with the man­tion [sic] house and all oth­ers with­in the her­itage there­of not to be inter­rupt­ed by any per­son. Also my Negroe wench named Rose for­ev­er, with any of the oth­er Negroes that she may want in time of need, while in the hands of her Chil­dren, also one half of my barn with all the house­hold fur­ni­ture to be at her dis­pos­al at her death with fifty pounds in cash.

I also give unto her my Negro Girl named cleary jr. dur­ing her nat­ur­al life and then to be sold and the price divid­ed equal­ly among all my Chil­dren

I give unto my son William Gra­ham one half of my black smith tools, all my wear­ing appar­el and my doclan [?] Book hav­ing made pro­vi­sion for him before he is the less noticed here.

I give unto my Son David Gra­ham my Geog­ra­phy and thir­ty pounds in cash, his plan­ta­tion not being equal to those of his Broth­ers.

I give unto my Son James Gra­ham one half of my Black smith tools with the His­to­ry of the Unit­ed States hav­ing pro­vid­ed for him hereto­fore there is no far­ther notice tak­en of him here.

I give unto my Son Samuel Gra­ham and his Chil­dren my Negro boy Cea­sor so that he is nev­er to be sold nor ever tak­en from his fam­i­ly dur­ing his life. –

I give unto my son Lan­ty Gra­ham the plan­ta­tion on which I now live to him and to his heirs for­ev­er, but if he should not have legal heirs of his own body, the said land to go to his Broth­er James pro­vid­ed James Shall give up the plan­ta­tion on which he now lives to be sold, and the price in such case is to be equal­ly divid­ed among him and his Broth­ers or their heirs. I give unto him also my Negro man Ben­jamin to be in com­mon between him and his moth­er at her dis­pos­al she using a prop­er dis­cre­tion to do equal jus­tice between them, and after the death of his moth­er the Said Negro to be Lanties and his heirs for ever and not to be dis­posed of –

I give unto my Daugh­ter Eliz­a­beth Stodghill my Negro woman named Cleary Senr. with the Book Willi­son on the Sacra­ment. –

I give unto my Daugh­ter Jane Gar­rad a suit of clothes from head to foot, of her own choice, to be paid out of the remain­der of my Estate after the lega­tees are set­tled and my Book the pow­er of Reli­gion. –

I give unto my Daugh­ter Rebeck­ah Gra­ham and her chil­dren, that plan­ta­tion where she now lives known by the name of Stephen­sons Cab­bin [?] also I give unto her and her chil­dren my Negro girl named Dinah, the Land and Negro nev­er to be dis­posed of out of the Fam­i­ly nor the increase of the Negro if any she has.

I give unto my Daugh­ter Flo­rence Tay­lor and her chil­dren, that tract of Land where­on she now lives, join­ing William Wood on Hungets creek to her and her Chil­dren for ever. Also I give unto her and her Chil­dren my Negro girl named Han­nah which [Negro is nev­er to be dis­posed of] nor her increase (if any) out of the Fam­i­ly.

All the before men­tioned legasies [sic] thus Bequeathed to my Chil­dren I give unto them and their heirs for ever accord­ing to the way they are stat­ed.

It is my Will and desire that my land in Ken­tucky in the name of my Son David and my two Lotts [sic] in point Pleas­ant with that sur­vey at the mouth of the three Mile Creek on [?] be sold by my Execu­tors in the most advan­ta­geous way that they may think prop­er and the mon­ey aris­ing from the same to be equal­ly divid­ed among my Chil­dren or their heirs (as the case may be) but that moi­ety which would fall to my Daugh­ter Jane Garred out of the above lands is to go to her the said Jane and her Chil­dren equal­ly, her son James except­ed.

Also it is my Will that my part of the Lotts and land or mon­ey now in the hands of Charles Friend be divid­ed in the fol­low­ing man­ner to Wit.

Five pounds to William Gra­hams Son James & Five pounds to Davids Son James, five pounds to James’s son James, Fife [sic] pounds to Samuel’s son James five pounds to Elis­a­beth Stodghills Son James five pounds to Jane Gar­rad daugh­ter Flo­rence + five pounds to Rebeck­ah’s Daugh­ter Flo­rence, the remain­der to be equal­ly divid­ed among my Chil­dren or their heirs (as the case may be) with this excep­tion that the moi­ety falling to Jane Garred to be divid­ed between her­self and her chil­dren, James Except­ed.

My farm­ing tools to remain on the plan­ta­tion all that arre need­full for work­ing the farm, my cross cut and whip­saws to be kept for the use of the fam­i­ly in gen­er­al. What­ev­er stock my beloved wife thinks ought to be sold is to be divid­ed Equal­ly as above with the same Excep­tions.

Pro­vid­ed Lan­ty should die with­out law­full Issue and James should not make choice of the place keft to Lan­ty it is then to be sold and the pro­ceed divid­ed in the same way as his would have been pro­vid­ed he had made chioce of it. –

It is my will and desire that this my will be so under­stood accord­ing to the plain let­ter­al mean­ing there­of with­out strain­ing of any part if any [?] has tak­en place there­in my cus­tom to the con­trary notwith­stand­ing.

I Give unto my Sons James & Samuel that tract of Land which Joins Samls lands he got of Tritt [?] with the Excep­tion that the Sug­ar Camp under Samuel Geins Moun­tain is to go to Lan­ty or who­ev­er gets the home­place. –

I Give unto Williams Son James and Davids Son James that tract of Land known by the name of Gromes [?] place to be equal­ly divid­ed between them either in Mon­ey or in Land. –

If the Siers place is recov­ered there is forty pounds to be paid to Caper­ton and what­ev­er is right to be paid to Sawyers for his part, but if my Son David thinks prop­er to pay Caper­ton his mon­ey and Lawyers [Sawyers?] his fee the bal­ance after the deter­mi­na­tion of the said he is to have it.

It is my will that my Execu­tors pay unto Hen­ry Windlesleaugh five pounds out of my Estate after the Lega­tees are paid.

If any dis­pute Should arise between any of my chil­dren con­cern­ing this my Estate, it is my will and desire that each of them choose one man and if they can’t deter­mine it let them choose anoth­er and their Judg­ment shall be final. And if any should arise between them and their Moth­er it is to be deter­mined in the same way, and the par­ty that refus­es to stand to the award shall be cut out of their part of the thing con­tend­ed for; and if the con­tention Should be about their whole part they are to loose their whole part, which shall be equal­ly divid­ed among all my chil­dren with the for­mer Excep­tion. –

I do appoint my beloved wife Flo­rence Gra­ham David Gra­ham & James Gra­ham Execu­tors of this my last will and Tes­ta­ment revok­ing all oth­er wills by me made hereto­fore. In tes­ti­mo­ny where­of I have here­un­to Set my hand and Seal this day & year first writ­ten

Signed sealed & deliv­ered

James Gra­ham, Seal

In pres­ence of
Jonathan Roach
Richard Davis
William Hinch­man, Junr.
John Per­ry

At Mon­roe Feb­ru­ary Court 1813

This last will and Tes­ta­ment of James Gra­ham Senr. decd. was pre­sent­ed in Court and proven by the oaths of Jonathan Roach, William Hinch­man, Jr and John Per­ry Junr. sub­scrib­ing wit­ness­es there­to and is ordered to be Record­ed. And on the motion of James Gra­ham Junr. and David Gra­ham Execu­tors named in the said who made oath and entered into Bond with Secu­ri­ty in the penal­ty of Ten thou­sand Dol­lars con­di­tioned as the Law directs, cer­tifi­cate is grant­ed them for obtain­ing pro­bat there­of in due form (it appear­ing to the Sat­is­fac­tion of the Court that Flo­rence Gra­ham Executrix named in the will afore­said refus­es to take upon her­self the Exe­cu­tion there­of).

A Copy
Test[e]
Isaac Hutchi­son, Clerk

Feb­ru­ary 10th 1813

This day we Robert Giv­en, Jonathan Roach and John Hinch­man appoint­ed by the wor­ship­full court of Mon­roe to appraise the per­son Estate of James Gra­ham Decd have met at the Late dwelling house of the said Gra­ham, and being first sworn have pro­ceed­ed to val­ue the fol­low­ing prop­er­ty to us shown by David Gra­ham and James Gra­ham Jr the two act­ing Execu­tors to said Estate, to wit,

One Cart and bulching [?] 16
One Wolf trap 3

Mon­roe Coun­ty Will Book1 , pp. 223–229, Mon­roe Coun­ty Cour­t­house, Union, WV.