I Got More Leaves and Branches on My Family Tree!
It has been quite a while since my last post! I was so busy finding out stuff in the end of 2021 that I did not find time to share what I found. And then 2022 came and turned my world upside down. But now I am feeling more like myself!! So, I am back!!
I’ve been pulling threads of disparate information together, theorizing and searching till the pieces come together to tell my family stories and perhaps your family stories as well.
What I found in the John Palfrey and William Taylor Palfrey letters and journal entries are vital clues that have added more leaves to the tree that is my Guy, Morgan and Gibson family of Iberia and St Mary Parish, Louisiana.
Included in a 1811 Palfrey family letter was the record of a purchase of John Palfrey of several slaves. The slaves were listed as family groups and include: Daniel and Phillis and their children: four boys, Ephraim, Adam, Elsey, Tom and Missisippi and a daughter, Elsey. The second family is my Gibson family and lists the mother Aimie and her five children: Tom, Bob (Robert Gibson, by 4th great grandfather), Joe, Ben and Fanny. The third family was the Riggs family: Sam, Mima and their daughters, Anna and Sally as well as Mima’s niece Maria. The fourth family group was Amos and Clara Marshall. The purchase also included a single male slave named Harry. It is impossible to tell if the adult slaves were related to each other or if they were purchased from the same prior plantation. The name of the previous slaveholder was not explicitly included, nor was the state of birth for any of the slaves.
Amos and Clara were freed in 1843 and were listed on the 1850 St Martin Parish census with the last name of Marshall–a name that their still enslaved children kept and are enumerated with on the 1870 and later census records as well as on marriage and death records. Their youngest child Amos Marshall Jr. was also freed with Amos and Clara. He was found on the 1860 and later New York census records. Amos Marshall Jr.’s New York probate is also online. I wrote extensively about Amos Marshall Jr and family in my earlier post “What Became of Them.”
Mima had died by 1843 and so was not freed, but her husband Sam Riggs is listed on the 1850 St Martin Parish census as a free person. Their daughter Sally was not freed. Sally is my 3rd grandmother. Sam and Mima’s daughter Anna and her four children also were among the slaves freed in 1843 by John Gorham Palfrey. I found Anna’ children in New York in 1850. I tell their story in an new post. A rough transcription of that purchase March 9, 1811 slave sale is below.
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On this ninth day of March one thousand eight hundred and eleven before me Stephen de Quinones notary public in and for the city of New Orleans and in presence of the witnesses herein after named personally came and appeared Richard Relf of said city one the co-partners trading under the firm of Chew & Relf and acting on behalf of his said house of trade, who declared that the said Chew & Relf had granted bargained and sold and by these presents they to grant bargain and sell from henceforth forever with promise to warrant free from all claims incumbrances and demands whatsoever unto John Palfrey of the Parish of St. Martin in the territory of Orleans order in the city of New Orleans executed here present and executing the same One male negro slave named Daniel aged about forty years together with one female negro slave named Phillis aged about thirty years with five slave children of the said Daniel & Phillis, to wit, Ephraim, Adam, Elsey, Tom and Mississippi, one other female slave named Amie aged about twenty seven years with her five children Tom, Bob, Joe, Ben and Fanny; One other male negro slave named Harry aged about twenty four years: one other male negro slaved named Sam aged about thirty years together with one other female slave named Mima aged about twenty five years and two slave children of the said Sam and Mima to with Sally and Ann and Maria niece of Mima; One other male negro named Amos aged about twenty five and one other female negro named Clara aged bout twenty years. To have & hold and ??? dispose of the said several negro slaves above bargained and sold unto the said John Palfrey his heirs and ??? to his and their use ??? forever, the said CHew & Relf hereby divesting themselves of all right general or special to the same promissary ?? obliging & ???
The present sale is made for and in consideration of the sum of seven thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars money of the United States of America of which sum the said Chew & Relf declare they have received in hand from the said John Palfrey four thousand dollars in a transfer of a claim on the syndics of the late George T Phillips are being content therewith the renounce adoption of the law de??? enumerated, declaring the said John Palfrey for so much acquitted and discharged and the remaining ??? three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars the said John Palfrey has obliged and by these presents he doth oblige himself to pay and cause to be paid to the said Chew & Relf their heirs or assig??? on or before the expiration of one year from the day of the date ??? deed and for the purpose of securing such payment so to be made the said John Palfrey doth bind his present and future estate and especially doth hereby hypothecate and make subject to the said Chew & Relf the following named negroes above mentioned to be bargained and sold, to wit, Daniel, Phillis, Ephraim, Adam, Elsey, Tom and Mississippi, Harry, Sam, Mima, Sally and Ann, Amos and Clara; with said last mentioned negroes the said John Palfrey promises that he will not sell or otherwise dispose of until the full and ?? ?? of the said same of three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars ?????
I certify the forgoing to be a true copy of the original ?? ?? the records of my office. New Orleans 12th March 1811
I certify that the above act is recorded in Book No. six page four hundred and fifty seven. New Orleans 13th March 1811.
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A separate sale by Relf and Chew to John Palfrey in 1811 of a lone child named Jim is also included in the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy database that provides information of sales of slaves between 1718 and 1820. According to the transcribed details, Jim was sold along with his 35-year-old mother on 3/11/1811 on document #155. This document number details the sale and purchase of Daniel & Phillis, Aimy, Amos & Clara and Harry, but the name Jim was not included. Nor was there a single adult female listed in the sale. Below is the sales record of Jim to Palfrey. I believe that Jim is the same person written about by John Palfrey in letters to his son William T Palfrey and later written about in William’s plantation journal as James Morgan. James Morgan is my 4th great grandfather on the Morgan side of my family tree.
Below is the record of Aimy’s purchase by John Palfrey from Richard Relf and Beverly Chew. Note that her age is listed as 35 in the database (although I transcribed her age as 27 see 1st image above) and that according to the purchase included in John Palfrey’s correspondence, Aimy had 4 sons (Tom, Bob, Ben and Joe) and 1 daughter (Fanny). Although Aimy’s age is detailed below as 35, I don’t think that she is Jim’s mother. I found a separate sale re: a sale by Richard Chew of a woman named Isabelle to David Urquhart in Plaquemine Parish. Isabelle appears to be the most likely person to be Jim’s mother. Isabelle is detailed to have 7 children. When I look through the database, I only found 6 children delivered to Urquhart: Franky, Kate, Lucy, unnamed infant, Patsey and Rody.
If Isabelle was indeed Jim’s mother and she and his 6 siblings: Franky, Kate, Lucy, unnamed infant, Patsey and Rody, were sold to David Urquhart of Plaquemine Parish, then I’ve identified, if not yet found, additional leaves on my family tree!!
Visit the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy site at https://ibiblio.org/laslave/fields.php and see what branches and/or leaves you can uncover!
Gibson Branches
Thirty-five-year-old Aimy is the oldest named person on my family tree. As noted above, she and her 5 children: Tom, Bob, Joe, Ben and Fanny were purchased by John Palfrey on March 9, 1811 from Relf & Chew (Richard Relf and Beverly Chew).
Read about Aimy
Aimy’s son Bob was my 4th great grandfather. He was born about 1800, which would have made him 10 years old when sold to Palfrey. Bob was mentioned many times in letters between John and his son William T Palfrey. Bob was evidently as slave of William’s Ricohoc Plantation but often put to work on the father’s plantation. The father seemingly valued Bob so much so that he requested a legal swap of Bob for Jim, a man that lived on the father’s Forlorn Hope Plantation.
Read more about Bob and Read more about Jim
Best,
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 