Wm Anderson McCoy Genealogy

## Will of William Marshall - 12 April 1815
### Brunswick County, Virginia
In the name of God amen. I William Marshall of the County of Brunswick & State of Virginia, being in perfect mind and memory do make and ordain this my Last will and Testament in manner and form as followeth. Item: I lend to my beloved wife Rebecca Marshall all my estate both persona and real which I may possess In the State of Virginia until my youngest child arrives to the age of Twenty one years provided she continues a widow but in case she should marry I give her a horse bridle and saddle to the value of Twelve pounds and a good feather bed and furniture to be her only portion or share of my estate and all balance and residue of my estate in the state of Virginia immediately after my wife’s marriage or at time my youngest child comes to the age of twenty one years I wish to be sold and the money dispersed of as herein after mentioned. Item provided my son Sack Marshall shall pay into my estate at the time of the devision the sum of one hundred Dollars, I give and bequeath unto him my said son Sack one hundred and twenty acres of Land Lying in the state of North Carolina in Caswell & Person counties on Hico Creek it being part of the tract whereon he now resides Beginning on McNeals line thence up hico creek to the ??? made for Paschal Roberts thence down said line until it completes the hundred and twenty acres by Turning across to McNeals line. Item my will and desire is that at the marriage or death of my wife or when my youngest child arrives at the age of twenty one years (as either case may first occur) that my whole estate of every description both in this state an[d] in the state of North Carolina (except the tract given to my son Sack) shall be sold and the money equally divided among all my Children, and the orphans of Spain Marshall with a deduction of seventy-five dollars out of my Daughter Rebecca Fins part and after giving my wife her part as above named. Lastly I do nominate and appoint my son Sack Marshall and my friend James Malone my executors to this my last will and Testament. Witness my hand and seal this twelfth day of April eighteen hundred and fifteen.
William Marshall [seal]

Signed, sealed acknowledged in presence of A. Malone, John ???, Robert Mitchell, John ? Pennington, Buckner Overby.Gee
Brunswick County Court July 27th 1818.

This last will and Testament of William Marshall dec’d was proved by the oath of Buckner Over by a witness thereto and having been pr’d on this 23rd June Last by thie oath of John Gee also a witness thereto the same is ordered to be recorded [seal] Tests R. Turnbull C. B. G.

[The old version of this summary, written before discovering two crucual documents, is retained below the new one.]

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.

========================== OLD VERSION ==============================
[Edited on 28 Feb 2018 based upon close study of the original 1819 handwritten complaint to the Court of chancery. Changes are in bold Note that this is likely to change again after discovering a Chancery suit of 1813 of Unity Johnson Marshall, widow of Spain Marshall, vs the administrator of Spain Marshall's estate in which Spain's heirs are named without mention of a son.]
In 1819, Rebecca Marshall, widow of William Marshall, brought suit in the Brunswick County VA Court of Chancery against the heirs of her late husband, William Marshall, in order to obtain her dower rights. Those heirs were:
a) David Marshall*
Saul Marshall*
Paul Marshall*
Henry Marshall*
Panthena Marshall*
Martha Marshall*
(* "of tender years" and in the guardianship first of Green Hill, then of John Ingram)
b) Rebecca Marshall, wife of Gabriel Finn(e)
c) Jesse Marshall (this name may be struck out)
d) John Marshall
e) Sack Marshall (taken to be Zachariah/Sacky/Sackey/Zachey/etc)
f) Charles Marshall
g) James Marshall
h) Joel Marshall
i) Polly Marshall
j) Jane Marshall
k) Jesse (difficult to read) only child & heir of Spain Marshall, brother of William Marshall
The actual order of names in the document (taken to be a chronological hist of children from oldest to youngest, except for the 2nd Jesse) is:
"Jesse, John, Sack, Charles, James, Joel, Polly, Jane, David, Saul, Paul, Panthera, Henry, Martha Marshall, [inserted above the line] & Jesse the only child and heir of [return to the main line of text] Spain Marshall, [phrase struck out "an only child of'] and Rebecca Finn, formerly Marshall, who intermarried with a certain Gabriel Finn"
The "child and heir of Spain Marshall" is named again in the court documents, and confusion remains about the actual name due to the appearance of the first letter, which is not consistent with the writer's other instances of "J". So the given name of this child (Williams' grandchild) is unclear until the name is repeated again, this time in the issued judgment where it is clearly Jesse (written in the old style of the time).
In the decree, it was ordered that the estate be divided into fourteen parts after the widow received 1/3 as her dower. The fourteen parts were to "Gabriel Finn & Rebecca his wife...one part thereof to Jesse Marshall the only child and heir of Spain Marshall dec'd, and one part thereof to each of the other def'ts equally...." The decree was later modified to divide the non-dower 2/3 of the estate into fifteen parts to accomodate all of the heirs listed above (the elder Jesse assumed to have been deceased in 1809).
This becomes confused in a further modification to the final decree dated Feb 22 1819 in which the estate is now to be divided into sixteen parts rather than fifteen "and that they assign to Jesse Marshall one equal part, and to the heirs of Spain Marshall one equal part...." The court did not specify names for "the heirs of Spain Marshall", but it is clear that there was more than one, not did it clarify the relationship of those heirs to Jesse Marshall. Assuming (as I do), that Jesse Marshall was the son of Spain Marshall and originally taken by the court to be Spain's only child, this final decree leads to the odd conclusion that Jesse was to get one full share plus another portion of one share as an heir of Spain Marshall. Doubtless that was not the intent.
Given the above and the available other records relating to Spain Marshall, it seems that he had four children consisting of three daughters (Elizabeth, Lucy, Sally) and one son (Jesse). It also appears that Jesse was considered to be an equal heir with his uncles and aunts in the estate of his grandfather, while his sisters were considered in aggregate to also consitute one equal share.
It was decreed that each of those listed was to receive an equal share of the estate after the widow Rebecca obtained her dower rights, except that the heirs of Spain Marshall were to receive one share in aggregate. So William Marshall had fourteen living children at the time of his death. Enough is known about dates of birth to be virtually certain that Rebecca could not have been the mother of all of them. And it now appears that her name was Rebecca Evans and that she married William in 1803 (best guess).

His death would have occurred prior to 23 June 1818, since that was the first date of proving of his will (by John Gee).