The estate of William Marshall and its division have been a muddle due to the documents from the Court of Chancery case from Brunswick County VA of 1819/1821 (Rebecca Marshall vs Heirs of William Marshall). I believe that Williams Marshall’s will of 1815 and the suit brought in Halifax County VA in 1818 by Unity Marshall against the administrator of her late husband’s (Spain Marshall) estate, both unknown to me until March of 2018, clears up much of this confusion.
The element of confusion is introduced by whomever wrote the complaint to the Brunswick County Court of Chancery on behalf of Rebecca Marshall, widow of William Marshall, in the suit initiated in 1819 in which the heirs of William Marshall are listed in this way:
“…Jesse, John, Sack, Charles, James, Joel, Polly, Jane, David, Saul, Paul, Panthea, Henry and Martha Marshall, *Spain Marshall an only child of and Rebecca Finn formerly Marshall, who intermarried with a certain Gabriel Finn….”
At the * just before “Spain Marshall” there is written above the line “& Jesse Marshall the only child and heir of”. In addition to this, the prior entry for Jesse (at the head of the listing) appears as though it may have been struck out. These appearances led to the suspicion that Jesse Marshall (son of William Marshall might be deceased and that a second Jesse Marshall was, in fact, the only child and heir of Spain Marshall and, therefore, a grandson of William Marshall.
These ideas seemed confirmed by later mentions in the text of the suit in which Jesse Marshall is repeatedly confirmed in the court’s decree to be “….the only child and heir of Spain Marshall dec’d…” who was to be considered eligible for an equal share of his grandfather William Marshall’s estate along with the sons and daughters of William.
However, this becomes very confused in two amendments to the decree in which the estate is to be divided into fifteen (later sixteen) shares in which Jesse Marshall is to have one equal share and the heirs (plural) of Spain Marshall are also to have an equal share. This takes us back to the beginning of the suit to wonder whether 1) Jesse Marshall, son of William Marshall, was really the only Jesse Marshall and was living; and 2) whether Spain Marshall had more than one heir.
The chancery suit mentions the will of William Marshall but does not directly quote from it or include it among its papers. Found later in this research, it helps to clarify things somewhat. The will mentions only a few family members by name: Rebecca (William’s widow) ; “my son Sack” [Zachariah] who is named executor and given a land bequest in North Carolina; and his daughter Rebecca Finn. Although William refers to “my Youngest Child”, thereby implying that he probably has several others, he does not name them. He does, however, mention “…the orphans of Spain Marshall”.
Finally there is the chancery suit of 1818 from Halifax County VA of Spain Marshall’s widow, Unity, against the administrator of his estate. The documents in this case repeatedly name Spain Marshall’s orphans as Elizabeth, Sally and Lucy Spain Marshall. There is no mention whatsoever of a Jesse Marshall or of any heir other than the three girls.
As a result of the above, my conclusions about the heirs of William Marshall have been revised, and I believe them to have been, in order of birth:
* Jesse
* John
* Zachariah (Sack/Zach)
* Rebecca (wife of Gabriel Finn)
* Charles
* James
* Joel
* Polly
* Jane
* David
* Saul & Paul (identical twins)
* Panthea
* Henry
* Martha
* & the three orphan girls of Spain Marshall, Elizabeth, Sally and Lucy Spain.
That accounts for the final sixteen shares, assuming that Spain n Marshall’s three orphans split what would have been his single share.