Autograph document. New Orleans, Louisiana, 25 February 1853. 2 pages, 4to, on blue paper.

A fascinating document regarding the estate of Spencer Gloyd (1797-1850), including the sale of slaves, and the continued occupancy in the home by his former "coloured" servant. Gloyd died on 25 May 1850 on board the steamboat St. Charles, on his way to Mississippi City. "His decease was instantaneous. While sitting with a few of his friends, without a moment's pain, or a word of complaint, he sank back a corpse!" (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, 28 May 1850). The New Orleans Crescent obituary noted that he was the "former landlord of the St. Charles Hotel, and a gentleman long and favorably known in this city." (27 May 1850). It seems that his sudden death left his estate in a state of confusion, with an 1851 trial regarding the secession notes that if a last will and testament existed, it was lost or mislaid, despite a thorough search for it. (Jefferson Parish, Succession and Probate Records, 1846-1860, No. 3009).

The document here, written nearly 3 years after Gloyd's death, seeks to address the lingering estate, noting that "The property is all unimproved, yielding no revenue, and at an expense, except the dwelling house occupied by Mr. Gloyd during his life time, which is situated above the city of New Orleans, in a neighborhood not the most agreeable, and where rent could not be had over ten dollars per month...The premises are now occupied by the coloured woman, with whom Mr. Gloyd lived, who with her children seem to claim the privilege of residing there free of rent, the curator not being disposed to exact any from her. If however I am properly authorized I shall compel a rendition of an account, and hold the curator responsible for rent during the entire time of his administration." The author goes on to include an inventory of the property: "real estate $5350.00, slaves $2550. movable property $30.85," as well as the debts of the estate, "exclusive of costs of court, commissions, interest and Cleverly's claim, $2568.56. Since then, taxes, necessary repairs, insurance and incidental expenses have swelled the amount to upwards of three thousand dolls. The slaves have been sold under an order from court, obtained by the curator."

We know of at least another petition (not included), entered by "John Henry a free man of color" seeking $94.80 with interest as he "furnished and supplied Spencer Gloyd deceased and his Colored Servant Mary Sullivan, at the request of deceased, with meats for and during sixteen successive months prior to the death of said deceased." (Jefferson Parish, Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984, no. 188). This Mary Sullivan, and her children, is almost certainly the same "coloured servant" who still occupied the Gloyd home in 1853. A Mary F. Sullivan, enumerated as a mulatto in the 1850 Federal Census, lived in Municipality 1, Ward 1 - possibly the residence in question.

An excellent document showing the complexities of probate and of relationships in antebellum New Orleans.

[Manuscripts, Letters, Documents, African Americana, African American History, Free Blacks, Slavery, Abolition, Enslavement, Emancipation]