Estate Sale – Hartwell Motley, deceased – Dec. 31, 1838
A large estate sale took place at the Motley “mansion house” near Danville, Virginia on Dec 31, 1838. Hartwell Motley, who was born on February 22, 1801, died November 20, 1838, leaving a pregnant wife, five young children and 33 slaves. Three years before, he bought a 333 1/3-acre plantation two and a half miles from the original town of Danville. The land is along what is now Piney Forest Road between Parker Road and Beavers’ Mill Road.
James Lanier, who became Danville first mayor in 1833, came to the sale and bought a black horse for $40, a cow and calf for $6.50 and a barrel and contents for 25 cents. Other prominent Danville landowners were also present.
Another buyer was neighbor Edwin R. Beavers who operated Beavers’ Mill on an adjoining 785-acre plantation. Beavers purchased a cow, writing desk, a keg of apices and a parcel of steel, all for $7.24. Beavers was owner of the mill which his father first built in 1792 and rebuilt in 1812.
Beavers also hired the services of the most valuable slave. The blacksmith Edmund was valued at $1,200 by the court. Beavers paid the estate $109 for Edmund’s services for the following year. It was a practice of the court to hire out, rather than sell, slaves when underage children were left as orphans. The annual payments provided for their support which was administrated by a guardian. This money was well accounted for and misuse could result in long court cases to protect the orphans. A note by James Garland, who was guardian of the Motley children, had a notation: “Cash furnished your mother shortly after the death of your father to buy mourning goods: $12.00.”
At the site of Beavers’ Mill many products from the blacksmith’s shop were found and will be exhibited at the Virginia Historical Museum in Richmond, Virginia beginning July 22, 2006.. It is likely that some of these iron artifacts were made by the hands of Edmund during 1839 and subsequent years. There appear to be no more records Edmund and the other Motley slaves.
The court listed 33 slaves belonging to the estate of Hartwell Motley in December 1838:
(1) Aron age 55 (b 1783) $400 (to hire for $86. Mrs. Motley)
(2) Nancy age 65 (b 1773) $100
(3) Sindy age 20 (b 1818)]
(4) her child (together) ] $650
(5) Violet age 5 (b 1833) $350
(6) Sary Jane age 3 (b 1835) $250
(7) Glass age 40 (b 1798) $700
(8) Peggy age 35 (b 1803)]
(9) her child (together) ] $550
(10) Logan age 14 (b 1824) $700 (to hire by William Linn $41.)
(10) Rolla age 10 (b1838) $600
(11) John age 8 (b1830) $500 (to hire by Geo. S. Sutherlin $18.50)
(13) Joe age 5 (b 1833) $450 (to hire Sam’l C. Brewer $10)
(14) Henry age 4 (b 1834) $350
(15) Reuben age 3 (b 1835) $250
(16) Garland age 35 (b 1803) $700
(17) Polly age 15 (b 1823) $700
(18) Lacy age 17 (b 1821)]
(19) her child (together) ] $850
(20) Caesar age 21 (b 1817) $900 (to hire by Sam C Brewer $90)
(21) Amy age 70 (b 1768) $ 5 (to keep by Mrs. Motley $5)
(22) Milly age 70 (b 1768) $ 5 (to hire by G. H. Barker $1)
(23) Emily age 25 (b 1813)]
(24) her child (together) ] $650 (to hire both by B. Hall $19)
(25) Mary age 11 (b 1827) $550
(26) Abby age 9 (b 1829) $450 (to hire by Mrs. Motley $6)
(27) Edmund age 22 (b 1816) $1,200 (Blacksmith) (to hire by Edwin R. Beavers $109.
(28) Linda not appraised (to Keep Linda and her three (29) her child “ children by Mrs Motley $34.)
(30) her child “
(31) her child “
(32) Rawly “ (to hire Paul T. Woodward $11.25)
(33) Lucy “ (to hire Thos. Worsham for G. L. Wilson $37)
Records show that the slaves who were rented out for the benefit of the Motley children brought in from $320 up to $641 per year from 1838 to 1846. The guardian came to court and had slaves Amy and Milly, “two old slaves,” released from payment of personal property taxes. Hartwell’s son Jordan D. Motley came to court years later and reported that his slave Amy died in December 1857 of “old age” and stated that she was 100 years old. This is likely the Amy who was 70 when Hartwell died in 1838. They probably had no record of her age.
Hartwell’s son Jordan Daniel Motley, who was only 13 when his father died, seems to have ended up with most of the land and slaves. By 1860, he was paying taxes on 306 acres of land valued at $6,800 and personal property (mostly slaves) of $35,000. In January of 1869, Jordan D. Motley was adjudged bankrupt and the land was divided up and sold. By a deed dated February 12, 1870, Pleasant Waddill bought a tract of 104 ¾ acres “on which is situated the dwelling house.” Pleasant, born in 1810 was Jordan D. Motley’s father-in-law. His wife Mary E. Waddill was born in 1835.
A deed from Hartwell Motley dated November 15, 1838, just five days before he died, was recorded on December 18, 1838. The family land formerly belonged to his father Daniel Motley (1788-1815) who married Sarah Payne in 1783. The 490 acres of Banister River sold for $2,480. There is no record to indicate the cause of his death. He was only thirty-seven years old and left no will. We can wonder if this large amount of cash on his person could have contributed to his early death.
This amazing information was recently discovered by Danny Ricketts, City of Danville and Pittsylvania County researcher and historian.
Auction sign by Bobby Ricketts
