In the Bedford County Courthouse are numerous Chancery Court files. These files consist of original documents folded and stored in envelopes, then placed in file cases. Unfortunately, these documents have not been microfilmed and there is no comprehensive index to them. There is an index by name of plaintiff. Occasionally, a document such as a deed will refer to a particular chancery file by number. The Court Order books may also refer to a particular case (e.g. Jones v. Roe) and you can then use the plaintiff's index to locate the file number. Chancery File #191, Harris v. Phillips, is a good example of the information available in these files, as well as an example of the limitations of the only available index. Most of the genealogical information in the file deals with the Thompson family, yet it is indexed only under Harris. This is not intended as a criticism, but a warning to researchers to carefully consider all possible locations of pertinent family information.David Waddy Thompson, Sr. died in 1827 in Bedford County, VA. Apparently his debts exceeded his assets, and his creditors alleged that assets had been improperly transferred to family members prior to his death. Yancey Harris was the son-in-law of David Thompson, Sr., and papers in this file describe his efforts to maintain possession of a slave named Cloe.
Yancey Harris, in his bill of complaint dated 23 April 1832, stated that Samuel Phillips had obtained a judgment against the estate of Waddy Thompson of about $80 and had caused it to be levied "on a female slave by the name of Cloe" owned by Yancey Harris. Cloe was Harris' only slave, and had been purchased by Harris from David W. Thompson, Jr. in 1827. A bill of sale in the file, in the amount of $120, is dated 17 December 1827. There is also a bill of sale between David W. Thompson, Sr. and David W. Thompson, Jr., dated 1 Jan 1825, in the amount of $170. Other documents in the file claim that David, Sr. owed money to David, Jr. for the latter's services as an overseer, and that the sale of Cloe to David, Jr. was in settlement of this debt. Samuel Phillips, of course, claimed that none of this was true, and that the "sale" of Cloe to David, Jr. and then to Yancey Harris was simply an attempt to defraud the creditors of David, Sr.
The complaint goes on to say that "said slave is about sixteen years of age, is a favorite and only slave and was raised with and in part by" Louisa Thompson, the wife of Yancey Harris. This claim forms a crucial part of the legal argument raised by Yancey Harris' lawyer in his brief, which explains the special nature of slaves as property under Virginia law at that time.
Yancey Harris was successful in obtaining an injunction to prevent Samuel Phillips from selling Cloe. However, I was unable to determine from the papers in the file if Harris ultimately retained possession of this young woman.
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