Hall's ex'or v. Smith
Supreme Court of Virginia
This was a suit in equity in the Circuit court of Chesterfield county, brought in March 1856, by Robert Smith and others, the children of Mary C. Smith, and grandchildren of William Womack, against Wilkins Hall, to recover from Hall a negro woman named Martha and her children. The plaintiffs claimed that their grandfather, William Womack, had by his will left the slave Martha to their mother, Mary C. Smith, for her life, and at her death to her children.
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This was a suit in equity in the Circuit court of Chesterfield county, brought in March 1856, by Robert Smith and others, the children of Mary C. Smith, and grandchildren of William Womack, against Wilkins Hall, to recover from Hall a negro woman named Martha and her children. The plaintiffs claimed that their grandfather, William Womack, had by his will left the slave Martha to their mother, Mary C. Smith, for her life, and at her death to her children. The case is sufficiently stated by Judge Bouldin in his opinion. The cause came on to be heard upon the 23d of November 1861, when the court…
1Opinion of the CourtBouldin, J.
The question in this case (on the merits) grows out of the construction of that clause of the codicil to the will of William Womack, deceased, in which, after directing an equal division of the residue of his estate among his children, Francis Jefferson, James Madison, Uancy, Susan and Mary C., to them, their heirs and assigns forever, he qualifies the provision for Mary C. as follows: “Except my daughter Mary C.; and her portion, after deducting forty-nine dollars, I lend unto her during her life, and after her death I give the same to the lawful issue of her body, to them and their heirs…
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