Edmund Stewart COFFEY, Jr - Synopsis of the Estates of Edmond S. Coffey Jr. and His Wife Matilda Fitzgerald Coffey

The following is a brief synopsis of the estates of Edmond S. Coffey Jr. and his wife Matilda Fitzgerald Coffey. Descendants of slaves may find this particularly interesting.
“Edmond S. Coffey Jr. most likely died 1855/56 when his estate was probated. Matilda Fitzgerald Coffey’s will was dated 5 August 1866 and she probably died soon after that while in her eighties. Edmond S. Coffey apparently did not leave a will so Matilda and their children came up with an agreement on what to do with the slaves and other property and presented it to the Circuit Court in Nelson County in what amounts to a petition. The petition names Edmond S. Coffey’s wife as Matilda Coffey and his children as John W. Coffey, Joseph Coffey, Joel Campbell husband of Nancy Coffey, ?Goshen, Carson? W. Parrish husband of Mary S. Coffey and Henry B. Coffey. The petition refers to two Deeds of Trust by Edmond S. Coffey in which he made provisions for the payment deaths and the negro slaves to be divided among his children and after their deaths to their children.
The petition Matilda and her children presented to the court basically states that Matilda Coffey made an agreement with her children whereby she would get for life the “Mansion House”, tract of land and the household and kitchen furniture, plantation tools and stocks on the property and the following slaves; Winney, Franky & Phillis and her children James and Alexander and after her death to be divided among her children. In Matilda’s will, she said that she had prevailed upon her son H. B. Coffey to come home and take care of her and that as a good and faithful son he did so. She also made reference to the current crop being his “in-as-much as this is his land and home” and that there was not to be any rent against him. She said this because of an agreement Henry made with his mother Matilda and his siblings when his father died. The agreement was basically that the Mansion House and property would be for Matilda during her lifetime and that Henry would then inherit it when his mother died, provided he pay his siblings $50 each. That is why Matilda said in her will that the crop was Henry’s anyway.
Another agreement among the siblings concerned how to divide their father’s negro slaves, Wyatt, Bob, Lucy, Lizzie, and Betsy. Interesting because what they did was have each slave valued, then wrote the amount on a “ticket” along with the name of the slave and each sibling then drew the tickets. As a result, Joel Campbell and his wife Nancy drew Wyatt valued at $500, John W. Coffey drew Bob valued at $600, Joseph Coffey drew Lucy valued at $400 and ?Goshen, Carson? Parrish and his wife Polly drew Betsy valued at $500. A boy named Henry was not drawn and it was decided that he should be sold at public auction and the money equally divided. Edmond S. Coffey also owned various small mountain tracts that no one was interested in so they were also sold to help pay off debts.