Time Line for Crossley Family Named in Lewis Weathersby's Will

Pleasant Grove M.B. Church
Crossley Family's Church
Smithdale, Amite County, Mississippi

1843 Jul 05 - Lewis Weathersby's will was signed on this date bequeathing the slave family in trust to his son Lodwick Weathersby. Thomas and his wife Lucy and their children Matilda, Sylvester, Andrew, and Dicey were to be given land, house and other provisions. The couple two daughters, Matilda and Dicy, were to be purchased by their parents for $300 each so they could tend to their parents in their old age.

Lewis' sons Lodwick Weathersby and Hatton Weathersby, and friend James M Smiley were appointed executors of his will.

16 Sep 1843 - Lewis Weathersby died.

1843 Nov- Lodwick Weathersby died.

1846 Mar 26 - Lodwick's widow Elphanie Obier married John Martin. Elphanie and John became guardians of the minor children of Elphanie and Lodwick.

1846-1847 - Lodwick's siblings, with the exception of Hatton, asked that the Negroes remaining in their father's estate be sold. Various petitions were presented to the courts concerning the property of their father Lewis Weathersby.

Hatton Weathersby, the guardian of the slave family, tried to have his father's wishes fulfilled but lost in the courts because he could not prove meritorious service. The section of Lewis Weathersby's will concerning the slave family would not be executed.

1849 - The six slaves who were to be freed were now a part of the estate of Lodwick Weathersby who had died without a will. Lodwick's daughter Missouri Ann and her husband James R Godbold complained how her mother and her mother's new husband had handled her father's estate. Missouri wanted her father's estate divided among his children.

The Crossley family were separated into lots to be given to Lodwick's children. Yellow Thomas and his wife yellow Lucy were given to Virginia Ann; yellow Sylvester went to Missouri Ann; yellow Andrew, Matilda, Dicey, and Dicey's child Leland were given to Solomon C Weathersby.

1855 - Virginia Ann Weathersby died without a will. The court divided her estate, which included Thomas and Lucy who were described as Old Tom and Old Lucy valued at $500 together. Thomas and Lucy were given to Virginia's brother William Weathersby.

Oct 1865 - Sylvester (Thomas and Lucy's son) and his wife Louisa and their son Andrew were named in the Freedmen Bureau Labor Contract on the Woodside Plantation of James and Missouri Weathersby Godbold.

1870 - The Crossley family was living in Summit, Lincoln County, MS.

SOURCE
A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African American Roots
by Franklin Carter Smith and Emily Anne Croom
The Slaves of Liberty, Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi 1820-1868
by Dale Edwyna Smith
Amite County Chancery Court Records, Case Number: 4588, Lewis Weathersby
Amite County Chancery Court Records, Case Number: 4598, Virginia Ann Weathersby
Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contract of James R Godbold
Mississippi Department of Archives and History
National Archives
Photograph Courtesy of Nathaniel Thomas