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George Washington Parke Custis' Will
A Memo
1. G.W. Parke Custis died October 10,
1857, in his 77th year
II. According to Custis' will Robert
E. Lee was named as one of the four executors. the other three
were Robert Lee Randolph, of Eastern View, Right Reverend
William Meade, and George Washington Peter. Failure of the last
named three men to quality, left the sole duty of
"discharging all the duties of settling a troublesome
estate under a complicated testament."
III. The will was probated December 7,
1857.
IV. The will provided for all of
Custis' slaves to be emancipated, "the said emancipation to
be accomplished in not exceeding five years from the time of my
decease."
The slaves numbered sixty-three.
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Due to his need of funds Lee was
forced to hire most of his slaves out to neighboring
plantations and to eastern Virginia. This move caused a
"petty rebellion" among the slaves and they
tried to run away to Pennsylvania, but were caught and
returned to Lee. The version of a man who signed a
letter he wrote to the Editor of the N.Y. Tribune, June
19, 1859, "A Citizen," is as follows.
The
children Custis had by his slave women numbered fifteen.
On one occasion three slaves ran away
and nine miles from Pennsylvania they were captured and
returned to Col. Lee, who ordered them flogged. The
officer who captured them whipped the two men and Lee
whipped the woman. After their punishment, Lee sent them
to Richmond from his Arlington plantation to be hired
out. This letter was written from Washington, D.C. --
June 19, 1859 and the facts were told the unknown author
of the letter, by relatives of the men whipped. |
V. Lee liberated the slaves of Custis during the
winter of 1862-63 and checked the list of Negroes and had the
deed of manumission recorded in the Hustings Court of the City
of Richmond. It was (the deed) acknowledged, before Benj. S.
Cason, J.P. of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Dec. 29, 1862, and
was recorded in Richmond, Jan. 2, 1863.
VI. The following is the list of Negroes freed under
Custis' will.
1. Perry, Lee's body servant
2. Nancy
Robert E. Lee's Slaves (p. 371)
I. He (Lee) had been in contact with slavery all his
life, though he had never owned more than some half-dozen
slaves.
II. There are no references in any of Lee's letters to
slaves of his own and until the rediscovery of his will in the
records of Rockbridge County, Virginia, it was not positively
known that he ever held any servants in his own name. That
document written in 1846, showed that he then owned a Negro
woman Nancy and her children who were at the White House
plantation. He directed that they be "liberated as soon as
it can be done to their advantage and that of others."
III. Lee's Will -- Obtainable -- Clerk's Office,
Lexington, Virginia.
George Washington Parke Custis' Slaves
| Eleanor Harris |
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| Ephraim Demicks |
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| George Clarke |
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| Charles Syphax |
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Selina Grey |
6 children -- Emma, Sarah, Harry, Amise,
Ada, Thornton |
| Thornton Grey |
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| Margaret Taylor |
4 children -- Danbridge, Ihon, Billy,
Quincy |
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| Lawrence Parks |
9 children -- Perry, George, Amanda,
Martha, Lawrence, |
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James, Magdalera, Leano, William |
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| Julia Ann Check |
3 children -- Catherine, Louis, Henry |
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An infant of Catherine |
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| Sally Norris |
3 children -- Mary, Sally, Wesley |
| Len Norris |
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| Old Shaack Check |
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| Austin Bingham |
12 children -- Harrison, Parks, Reuben,
Henry, Edward, |
| Louisa Bingham |
Austin, Lucuis, Leanthe, Louisa, Carolina,
Jem and her infant |
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| Obediah Grey |
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| Austin Banham |
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| Michael Merriday |
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| Catherine Grey and her |
child |
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| Marrianne Burke |
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| Agnes Burke |
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| Slaves Belonging to |
the White House Estate |
| Robert Crides |
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| Desiah Crides |
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| Locky Zack Young and |
child |
| Fleming Randolph and |
child |
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