| Summary: | By his will of 1832, John Cheshire, Sr left two slaves, Peter and Dice, to his wife Susannah for life, with the title going after her death to John Cheshire, Jr, John Sr's son and Susannah's stepson. John Jr's bill alleged that in 1835 Susannah Cheshire conspired with Burch Cheshire and David Henderson to run the slaves off to Alabama in the full knowledge that he had a legal interest in them, and prayed for restitution of the slaves and damages. Burch Cheshire admitted that he had bought Peter and Dice for [dollars] 960 in the knowledge that John Jr held an interest in them and claimed that he did so alone; Henderson denied all the claims against him. The price the slaves obtained when sold on by Burch was [dollars] 2,100. The court determined that such was the nature of the transactions that the evidence showed had taken place between Burch, Susannah and Henderson it was clear that Henderson had advanced money to Burch (proved to be insolvent) and therefore was to be considered as much the slaves' purchaser as was Burch himself. The ruling was that John Cheshire was entitled to the purchase money paid by the defendants, with interest from the death of Susannah Cheshire.
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