Petition to Divide Frederick Reeves Estate
Transcription
North Carolina } Court of Equity
Orange County } Fall Term A.D. 1855
To the Honorable the Judge of said Court ~
The petition of William D. Reeves, Hugh C. Reeves, George M. Reeves, John Reeves, James Hastings & wife Mary, Henry McDaniel & wife Sally, A. J. Borland & wife Lydia, Henry J. Thompson & wife Edie, the heirs at Law of Azariah Reeves, deceased, to wit: Martha & James who are of age, Edie, Jane, Hugh, John & Janet Reeves, and Martha Anderson who are minors under the age of twenty one years, by their next friend & guardian, pendente lite, Thomas Webb Clerk & Master, the heirs at Law of Elizabeth Daniel, to wit: Fred and Martha Daniel who are of age, and Mary Daniel a minor under twenty one years of age, by her next friend Thomas Webb, and Janet Reeves by her next friend and guardian George Laws ~
Against
James M. Reeves who resides beyond the limits of the State in the State of Tennessee Respectfully showeth to your Honor that Frederick Reeves, late of said County, died intestate, leaving a widow (had her dower alloted to her in his lands) sometime in the year 1854 leaving him surviving your Petitioners William, Hugh, George, John Reeves, Mary Hastings, Sally McDaniel, Lydia Borland, Edie Thompson, and Janet Reeves, his children, and the above named heirs at law of Azariah Reeves & Elizabeth Daniel his grandchildren, who with his son James M. Reeves the defendant, are his only heirs at law upon whom his real estate descended, between them equally to be divided, as tenants in common, of his said children, and each family of his said grandchildren, being entitled to one twelvth (sic) part thereof ~ And your Petitioners further show, that the said intestate, at the time of his death, was seized in fee-simple of a tract of land, situate in the County aforesaid on the waters of New Hope, adjoining the lands of William Baldwin, John Carr & others, and containing about Six hundred acres more or less - desire to have partition of said land made amongst them and the defendant according to their respective rights and interests therein, but that owing to the size of the said tract of land, the number of the parties interested, the nature and quality of the soil and the causes, it is impossible that actual partition thereof can be made, without serious injury to the parties interested ~
To the end therefore that the said defendant may answer the premises that the said land may; by a decree of your Honor, be sold on such terms as your Honor shall deem just and reasonable, and that the proceeds of said sale may be divided among your Petitioners and the said defendant according to their respective interests in said land, and may be paid to, or secured for them respectively, according to law and the course of this Court ~ May it please your Honor to order publication to be made as to the said James M. Reeves who resides beyond the limits of this state, notifying him of the filing of this petition, and directing him to appear and answer &c ~ And your Petitioners as in duty bound, will ever pray ~
Henry S. E. Nash
Sol. For Petr.