Ballard v Warren, 1850

 

FamilySearch. Barren County, KY. 1850.

In April 1850, Rice C. Ballard filed a lawsuit in Barren County, Kentucky against Mary Warren, John Cannon and Franklin Settle. As a wealthy slave trader, Ballard had means to hire an attorney and pursue his case against the widow of David Warren, from whom he had purchased land in trust on behalf of his sister Emily A. H. Read and children in October 1847. According to the complaint, Ballard purchased several parcels of land from Warren, through his agent William F. Read for $1300. Read paid a $300 deposit to Warren in December 1847, when the family moved from Virginia to Barren County. The remaining portion was paid to Franklin Settle for the use and benefit of David's widow, Mary. She used $200 of the total, leaving $800.

David Warren appears to have owed debts to others in the county, who filed suit in Barren County court. Ballard was concerned the creditors would try to seize the land had purchased in trust from Warren, and preemptively filed his case. There's quite a bit of back and forth filings in the file. In my previous post I included a section from the 1850 US census showing Mary Warren and young John Cannon living near the Read family. Ballard claimed that Mary Warren was in process of moving out of state to Missouri and had made a fraudulent conveyance of the remaining $800 note with Franklin Settle to John Cannon, who was not yet 21 years old.

Ballard also asked the court to prevent Mary Warren from conveying five slaves to Cannon, and named three specifically - a woman named Caroline, and two children, Rachel and America. It looks now like America Parrish, the slave later in the household of Emily A. H. Read, could have been the daughter of Caroline. Given other documents mentioning America, she would have been two years old when the lawsuit was filed in 1850.

Ballard v Warren, 1850.

Ballard paid a $2000 bond with Lewis Wilkerson, the creditor on the estate of David Warren, and asked the Sheriff of the county to enjoin Mary Warren and John Cannon. It isn't clear from the record what happened next to Caroline, Rachel and America. Ballard was able to successfully prevent the property deeded in trust to Emily A. H. Read and children from being sold to pay the debts of David Warren.