Jefferson L. Edmonds and Others, Appellants v. Anderson Crenshaw

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Alabama. The complainants, who represent themselves to be the devisees of Aaron Cates, deceased, who, on the 7th of February, 1816, made his will in which he required all his estate, both real and personal, to be sold at public auction, by his executors, on a credit of one, two, and three years; the purchaser to give two good freehold securities and a mortgage on the property, to secure the payments. Three bequests, of one hundred dollars each, were made to certain individuals, to one of whom he gave his wearing apparel. After the payment of these bequests, his funeral expenses, and ten per cent. on monies collected by his executors, he directed that his executors should vest the entire balance, including the net proceeds of his estate then in their hands, in bank stock, or in shares or capital of such companies or corporations as in their judgments should be most proper and productive, in trust for certain uses, and subject to certain restrictions: and he appointed 'his friends, Anderson Crenshaw and James M'Morris, executors; and on the death of either, the survivor was to be sole executor, with power of appointing, either by deed or by will, a proper person to carry into effect the provisions of the will.' On the death of the testator, the executors proved the will in the ordinary's office for Newberry district, in the state of South Carolina, and qualified as executors. They caused the property to be appraised and sold, and made returns thereof to the above office: the sale bill, they allege, amounted to the sum of twenty-five thousand one hundred and forty-four dollars. And the complainants state that at the time of his decease, the testator had a considerable sum of money on hand, and that many debts on accounts, notes, honds, and mortgages, were due to him; and afterwards came into the hands of his executors.