Turk v Rafferty Lawsuit

Turk & wife

v.

Raffarty & wife

________

1771 Aug Billsh______

Nov.a tomator (?)

Answer

George the third by the Grace of God of great Britain, France & Ireland King defended of the faith & to the Sherif of Augusta County, Greeting we command you that you Summons Thomas Rafarty and Esther his wife

To appear before the Justices of our said County Court in ________ at the Court House of the said County on the third Tuesday in next month to Answer a Bill in Chancery Exhibit _______ by Thomas Turk and Mary his wife, William Glave, and Elizabeth Glave, and Michael Glave, Easter Glave and and Matthew Glave, infants by William Glave, their guardian.

I this they shall in no wise and under the penalty of L100. John Madison Clerk of our said Court this 22d day of May in the 11th year of our Reign.

/S/ John Madison

August 20th 1771 then can before me William Glaves & made oath that he servd the within on Defendants with a true copy of the within.

Certified by me.

/S/ _________

To the Worshipful his Majesties Justices of the County Court of Augusta now sitting in Chancery. Humbly Complaining shew unto ye worships. Your Orator, Thomas Turk and Mary his wife, William Glaves, Elizabeth Glave, Michael Glave, Easter Glave, and Matthew Glave, infants by William Glave, their guardian . . .

That sometime in or about the year One Thousand seven hundred and sixty your Orator's father Matthew Glaves departed this life intestate without making any disposition of his estate or effects and who at ye time of his death was possessed of a very considerable personal estate as ye Orators have been informed consisting of Houses, Cattle, Hogs Sheep, household goods and all kind of implements of husbandry. That upon ye Orator's father's death their mother, Esther, since intermarried with Thomas Laferty the Defendants hereafter named, possessed herself of the whole estate (your Orators then being infants of very tender years) without ever taken our Letter of Administration, soon after which before she was disposed of the same intermarried with ye other Defendant, Thomas Laferty, by virtue of which intermarriage, he took ye whole of your Orator's estate left by their father into his custody and possession and used possessed & disposed of the same without ever rendering any account to either of your Orators or to this Worshipful Court. Although your Orators, Mary Turk and William Glave since they have come of age hath often in a fair and friendly manner requested him so to do as such on his own account as on behalf of his infant brothers and sisters. But now so it is may it please ye worships that ye s[aid] Thomas Laferty and Esther his wife combining and confederating to and with divers persons unknown to ye Orators whose names when discovered your Orators pray may be made parties to this their Bill w[ith] (unreadable) words to charge them how to defeat? And defend? Ye Orators absolutely refuses to render any account of ye Orator's father's estate which came into his possession after his intermarriage with ye Orator's mother as aforesaid, sometimes pretending and giving out in speeches that ye Orator's father left little or nothing at other times if he did, the same was wasted & expended before he intermarried with ye Orator's mother and at other times, that the ye whole came to his hand and possession

the same was such expended in their maintenance, all which actions and doings of the s[aid] Thomas Laferty and Esther, his wife, ae contrary to equity and good conscience stand to ye manifest injury & oppression of ye Orators. On tender consideration whereof and for that your Orators are remedied? by the acts & rules of the Common Law and are only property relievable in a Court of Equity where matters of discovery and fraud are properly cognizable. _________ and therefore that the s[aid] Thomas Laferty and Esther his wife may upon their several & respective _______ oaths ________ true and perfect answer make to all & singular ye premises in as due and ample manner as if the same were here again repeated & interrogated and more especially that ye s[aid] Esther may set fort and discover whether her late husband, your Orator's fater ______ possessed of some considerable personal estate & what did ye same consist of? Whether she ever administered whether during her Widowhood she did not possess herself of the same or how much of what? Whether before the intermarriage with her present husband she sold & disposed of any & what part thereof and how much did ye same amount to? Whether after marriage with ye s[aid] Thomas Laferty, he did not by virtue of such his intermarriage get the same & how much unto his possession? And that ye said Thomas Laferty may set forth & ________ whether he did not by virtue of his marriage with ye Orator's mother possessed himself of ye Orator's father's estate and effects & what did ye same consist of? Whether he had sold or disposed of any & what part thereof & how much did the same amount to? Whether either he or his wife have ever rendered any & what account thereof to this Worshipful Court and that ye s[aid] Thomas Laferty and Esther his wife may by Decree of this Worshipful be obliged to render a fair and just account of ye Orator's father's estate & pay unto them their several parts & dividends which by law they and each of them are entitled to. Ye Orators have such further and other relief in ye premises as in is agreeable to Equity and good conscience, may it please ye worships to grant unto ye Orator his Majesties most gracious with a subpoena to the s[aid] Thomas Laferty and Esther his wife directed.

/S/ Jones for the Compl[ainants]