James Moore Wayne

“ That a deed of manumission, acknowledged by a nonresident in the court of the county where the slave resides, is good and binding in law. And
9. That if the defendant, Julia Roberts, was entitled to her freedom in any way whatever, and the same appears by the evidence in the record, she is free, and the instruction asked for in the first bill of exceptions, if it had been given by the court could not benefit the plaintiffs in error, and its refusal is no ground for a reversal of the judgment. ”

“ And the petitioner further gave evidence tending to prove, that at the division of the estate of Simon Summers, who died in 1836, the defendant Adams was present, and that in said division the said Sarah was brought into hotch-pot-that is, Wesley Adams was charged as distributee of Simon Summers's estate, with the value of the services of said Sarah, up to the year 1814, when she went free, and up to which time the said Summers had allowed her to serve Wesley Adams. ”

“ In support of the 5th point, he said that Sarah, the mother of Julia, was free on the 1st day of January, 1814, and that Julia must have been born after that day; because she was twenty-eight years old when the trial took place, in May, 1842. Besides, the lapse of twenty years authorizes a presumption of a deed of manumission. ”