A Deed of Gift

In February 1807, Mary Curtis provided a deed of gift to her niece, Mary C. Crutcher. In the same record, she also named the other children of her brother-in-law Anthony Crutcher and his wife Elizabeth Curtis Crutcher. When viewing the typed version of this record on Ancestry, as part of the Tennessee Wills collection, the document is listed as a probate file, and gives an inferred death date for Mary as 1807. But this is not a probate document, it is a deed of gift, similar to the slave transaction made in an earlier record from her grandfather John Carter's estate in 1784.

Viewing the original handwritten record on FamilySearch as part of the Montgomery County, Tennessee Will Books 1795-1825 gives a different perspective.

FamilySearch. Montgomery County, TN. 23 Feb 1807.

Mary Curtis' deed of gift was a slave girl named Nancy (a child of Poll or Polly), and all her household furniture, clothing, and all her other goods and chattels, except for three slaves who were to be sold and proceeds divided equally among the other children of her sister and brother-in-law: William, Carter, Thomas, George, Fanny, Patsy, Elizabeth and Sally Crutcher. Patsy and Elizabeth Crutcher were later named as beneficiaries in the will of their grandmother Frances Carter Curtis in 1827.

A later document in the Montgomery County Court minutes in July 1807 shows this was a deed of gift, and not a will.

FamilySearch. Montgomery County, TN. 15 Jul 1807.

On 7 August 1811, William Curtis signed a marriage record for his sister Mary Curtis to Daniel Dunnivant in Davidson County, Tennessee. Mary is listed as Molly Dunnivant in the will of Frances Curtis in 1827.

FamilySearch. Davidson County, TN. 7 Aug 1811.