Deed of Trust from Abselia Morris to John Perry

Experimenting with ArchiveGrid, I found a document in the Alabama archives where Apselia (Abselia) Morris, widow of Benjamin Morris, executed a deed of trust to John Perry, trustee of her grandson Michael W. Rabun.   While not proof of anything, it does add to my speculation that there is some sort of connection between Perry and Abselia or her husband.  Names have been spelled as they appear.  Interestingly, Absela Morris also included Ned in her will to go to Michael.  However, since her will was written in 1848 but not executed until 1865, that of course did not happen. The witness Columbus Perry is John Perry's son. 

The original deed can be seen on the Alabama State Archives website. 


Georgia, Crawford County}}  Know all men by these presents that I Absela Morris for and in consideration of the sum of five dollars cash in hand paid by John Perry of said county as well as the love and affection which I have for my grandson Michael Rabun of Alabama, have bargained sold & delivered and by these presents do bargain sell and deliver unto the said John Perry a negro man by the name of Ned about twenty eight years, forever in fee simple. To have and to hold upon the following uses & trusts that I, the said Absela am to have the use control hire and benefit of the labor of the said Ned during my life, then the said trustee, the said John Perry is to convey and deliver the said negro man to the said Michael W. Rabun his heirs and assigns forever in fee simple.  In testimony whereof I have set my hand and affixed my seal this the twenty seventh day of January eighteen hundred & fifty five.

                                     Apselia X Morris
                                             her mark

In presence of
G C Hancock
Columbus Perry
G C Culverhouse J.J.C.


I hereby acknowledge the delivery and reception of the within bill of sale and the property therein conveyed & accept the trust therein ?confided? to me.  January 27th 1855.  John Perry

Recorded the 8th day of February 1855  James I Ray, clerk

Another Lesson learned

Yesterday I posted about the Sullivan/Daniel deed selling land to the Perrys.  I started doing some research on the people involved to determine what, if any, connection there was between the families.  I found information which indicated that Mary Sullivan was originally Mary Shanley/Shunley/Shurley possibly the daughter of Aaron.  Went back and looked at the deeds and sure enough, the one before the sale to M.F. Perry is a deed between Berry Sullivan and Aaron Shurley.  However, since at the time I was photographing these I was only interested in the Perry ones, it never occurred to me to look at the deeds around them.  Therefore, I only have the very end of the previous deed and will need to go back to Crawford County to see the rest. 

Questions about some land

In April 1884, Mary Sullivan, widow of L. B. [Little Berry] Sullivan and her daughter Almyra Sullivan Daniel sold 101 1/4 acres of land in Crawford County, Georgia to Mattie Hatcher and Sallie B. Perry, for $300.  Mary and Almyra were described as the only heirs to the estate of  L. B. Sullivan, of Webster county, while Mattie and Sallie were described as the daughters of M.F. [Mark Franklin] Perry.   The deed was witnessed by John Daniel and Almyra's husband Alex Daniel.   There are several points of interest here.  First, M.F. Perry and his wife were still living, so it seems unusual that the property was sold to their daughters.  Secondly, Mattie was grown and married, age 22, but Sallie was only 13.  Mattie's husband was not mentioned.   Also, 1890 tax records duly show Mrs. Mattie Hatcher and Miss Blanch Perry paying taxes on 50 acres of land each, but also show their mother Mrs. Sarah Perry as having 200 acres in that same section.   M.F. Perry does not pay taxes on any real estate although he shows some personal property. 

Three years later, Mary Sullivan and Almyra Daniel sold a nearby lot to M.F. Perry.  In this deed they are again described as the sole heirs of L.B. Sullivan and the land being sold is described as "the land formerly owned by L.B. Sullivan in Crawford County".  Alex Daniel again witnesses the transaction. M.F. Perry promptly took out a mortgage on the land, which he paid off a few years later.

Finally, in 1893, S. Blanch Perry (Sallie) sold her 50 acres of the land above to her sister Martha Hatcher for $100.

Sarah Blanch and Middle Names

I am a middle namer and so are many of the other people in my family.  Nonetheless, I sometimes forget to take that into account when hunting for relatives, particularly since middle namers will sometimes appear in records by the name they use and sometimes by their first name.   This was brought home recently as I was going through some Crawford county deeds.  In one instance, property was sold to Martha Hatcher and Blanch Perry, daughters of Mark Perry.  I had Mark with two daughters but they were Martha and Sarah (from the 1880 census).  Other records with the land had Blanch as S. Blanch Perry, which of course started me looking at Mark's daughter Sarah.  Taking the leap that Sarah Perry, on the census as Mark's daughter, and the Blanch/S. Blanch Perry in this record were the same, I started looking at records for Blanch.  A few years after the land record, Blanch Perry married Ezekiel Atwater.  Looking further in the census, in 1900 Ezekiel and Blanch Atwater had a son Perry.  In 1910, the parents in the family are Ezekiel and Sally Atwater (Sally of course being Sarah), and her tombstone from 1918 has Blanch P. Atwater.  In this case, the use of the middle name makes good sense, since her mother was also Sarah and this would have served to differentiate them.  

John Perry gift to Ann Perry Becham

In 1861, his wife having died a few years before, John Perry gave a portion of his land to his daughter Ann, then moved to Jefferson County to live with his widowed sister, Ann Daniel. 

Georgia, Crawford County

Know all men by these presents that I John Perry for the good will love and affection which I have and bear to my daughter Ann Caroline Beckham wife of Washington Beckham and her present and any future children she my said daughter Ann Caroline may have, I this day give remise release and forever quit claim unto her my said daughter & her children, free from the debts contracts or liabilities of her present or any future husband she my said daughter may have, all my right title interests and claims in and to lot of land number nineteen (no 19) containing two hundred two and a half acres more or less lying & being in the third district of originally Houston now Crawford County To have and to hold the said described land to the said Ann Caroline and her children as above conditioned in fee simple forever.

  In testimony whereof the said John Perry hath hereto set his hand and affixed his seal, this 9th day of December AD 1861.

Signed Sealed and delivered                         John Perry {seal}

in the presence of

 Alford Long

 James I Ray

 Clerk of the Inferior Court

The words nineteen and figures 19 interlined & changed before us to twenty nine (29)

Recorded December 17th, 1861

James I Ray Clk

 SupCourt

The Confusion of Family Connections

Almost every line of my mother's family have been in Crawford County, GA since the 1830s.  This of course means that over the years, different members of the family have interacted with each other in good and bad ways.  One of the challenges for me is to remember that these exchanges are not always anything more than neighbors interacting with each other, and that it is purely coincidental that their great-grandchildren married.  On the other hand, sometimes it really does indicate a connection between the families. It's hard when the names are so familiar to you to sometimes recognize the difference.

For example:  In November 1843 - Thomas S. Estis brought a case against John Perry, Abel Daniel & Thomas Stripling.  The verdict was listed as "debt & confession for plaintiff for $94.46".  The defendant (John Perry) being dissatisfied with the confession, paid all costs and demanded a stay of execution & brought Nimrod Lewis & tendered him as security.   John Perry's great grandson Frank Becham married Lewis's great-great-granddaughter Viola Wade.  Since I spend so much time on both men, I had to remind myself that this 1843 connection was that of neighbors, not family. 

On the other hand, In January 1900, M. T. (Moses Thomas) Wade accused Emanuel Horne of stealing $140 from him.  Horne was arrested and offered to return the money if charges were not pressed.  Wade agreed, but the court did not and ordered that the case proceed anyway.  The newspaper did not give the final verdict.   I had at first put this one down to coincidence, but then remembered that Wade's son Ed Wade was married to Horne's sister Carrie.  While this probably didn't affect the original robbery, it may well have been a factor in Wade's willingness to drop the charges.