Texas Pioneer Michael Erskine Mortgages Slaves to Secure Loan

This court record recounts the case of Thomas W. Wilson against Michael Erskine in the Fall term of the District Court of Guadalupe County, Texas. When the plaintiff offered to read into evidence two letters from the defendant from 1851, the defendant objected, but Judge Thomas H. Duval overruled the objection and allowed the letters to be read. The court ruled for Wilson and awarded $3,104.24. Erskine excepted to this decision, and made a motion for a new trial. The court overruled the motion for a new trial and ordered the sheriff to sell the two slaves that had secured the debt and to apply the proceeds to the judgment against Erskine in Wilson's favor. If their sale was insufficient to cover the cost of the award, the court ordered the sheriff to make up the additional amount out of "the goods chattels and estates of the said Michael Erskine."

Erskine appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which in 1857 reversed and remanded the district court ruling. After another trial, Erskine again appealed to the Texas Supreme Court in 1863, where again the jury verdict in the lower court was reversed and remanded.

In November 1840, Michael Erskine had mortgaged two slaves (Peter, age 40, and Ned, age 35) to Augustus C. Jones to secure a bond or promissory note to Winston L. Rousseau (1814-1844) for $1,197, due in March 1842. If Erskine paid the note or bond, then he would still own the two slaves, but if he did not, the two slaves could be sold at public auction. Rousseau's heir assigned the debt to Thomas W. Wilson, and the transactions between Wilson and Erskine also involved some land in Guadalupe County, Texas, which had been formed in 1846 from parts of Bexar and Gonzales counties. Approximately half of Erskine's El Capote Ranch fell within Guadalupe County when it was created.

In 1847, Michael Erskine and his son John P. Erskine entered into a partnership agreement to manage El Capote. The articles of agreement include the caveat, "Should the Negroes belonging to Doctor Alexander Erskine [Michael Erskine's brother in Alabama] be taken out of the possession of the said Michael Erskine, then the said John has the right to terminate and put a stop to this partnership or to continue it with the Negroes which the said Michael now owns...." The document also included a "Memorandum of the Negroes which are upon the Capote place agreeable to the foregoing agreement. Bill, Anthony, Peter, and Cato. Negroes belonging to Michael Erskine. Dinah and Sarah, Johnson, Vina, Fean, Mose, Louisiana, Mary, and Lise. Dinah's children, Jose and Frances, Sarah's children. Making twelve of Doctor Erskine's and four of M Erskine's." The Peter in this list is likely the same slave involved in the 1840 mortgage, but it is unclear whether Ned had survived to 1847.

[SLAVERY.] Manuscript Document, Court Record, District Court of Guadalupe County, Texas, December 6, 1856, Seguin, Texas. 9 pp., 7.75" x 12.5". Expected folds; holes in top margin from previous binding; very good.

Michael Erskine (1794-1862) was born in Virginia, the grandchild of Scottish immigrants. In 1817, he married Agnes D. Haynes (1797-1856) in Virginia, and they had ten children. In 1830, they moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where he engaged in farming. The Erskine family then moved to Mississippi, where they also farmed. In 1839, Erskine settled near Port Lavaca, Texas. In 1840, Erskine acquired the El Capote Ranch in Gonzales County from the heirs of Jose De La Baume (1731-1834), a French army officer who came to America with the Marquis de Lafayette and fought in the American Revolutionary War. For later services in the Spanish Army, De La Baume receive 27,000 acres of Texas land, which Mexico reaffirmed after it won independence from Spain in 1821. Erskine raised cattle on the vast ranch and drove herds to California and New Orleans. In 1854, he personally participated with two of his sons in a cattle drive to California, in which he reached California with 1,000 head of cattle after a drive of seven months. In addition to cowboys, the drive included an escort of twenty armed men. He returned to El Capote in 1859, after investing and losing money in mining ventures in California. He drove cattle to New Orleans in 1860 and again in 1861. He died in Louisiana on his return from the second drive in May 1862.

Thomas W. Wilson (1792-1862) was born in North Carolina and attended Washington College in East Tennessee. He studied law and became a wealthy lawyer. He moved to Texas about 1850 and gained admission to the bar there. He also devoted attention to farming.

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