Mary Odom/Odum Barnwell, SC & GA
Benajah BEST, Admr. vs. John PURVIS, Admr.
Posted by Bushy Hartman
Surname: BEST, PURVIS, ODOM
BENAJAH BEST, Admr. vs. JOHN PURVIS, Admr.
Injunction, Accounting & C. Filed Feb. 2, 1818.
Elizabeth PURVIS, late of Barnwell District, in her lifetime administered the estate of William PURVIS, her deceased husband, and afterward by a non-cupative will "long ago established" bequeathed to said Benajah BEST the whole of her estate. Wm. PURVIS died intestate, left a sister Anne who also died intestate, without children and unmarried, leaving her aunts Mary ODUM and Betty PURVIS as the only surviving of the family and next of kin, to whom half of the estate (not held by the widow) of the said Wm. PURVIS descended. Johh PURVIS late of Barnwell District but now of Georgia, became admr. on said Anne Purvis' died leaving two anunts Betty PURVIS and Mary ODOM and said Betty died leaving a sister entitled not only to the whole of her int. in this property but also to all the rest of her estate. Mary ODUM hath lately died, and had previously made a deed conveying the whole of her claim to the estate of her said niece Anne and a nephew William PURVIS to petitioner, and in addition, petitioner is the admr. of saod Mary ODOM. John PURVIS is in no way related to said Anne in a degree which entitles him to her estate or any part thereof, inasmuch as he the said John is an illegitimate child. Said John is about to enforce collection of his decree wrongfully. Petition sworn to by Benajah BEST in St. Luke's Parish where he evidently lived.
Defendant in his answer admits that he is the illegitimate son of said Anne and that she never married. Deft. is her only child. She made him on Sept. 21, 1802, a gift of her interest in the estate of her brother William. Says that no part of the state of Ann PURVIS which she owned on said date could vest in said Betty PURVIS and Mary ODOM. He has heard that William and Ann "had first cousins or pretended to be so". Says Mary ODOM died in Georgia, and he was appointed admr. on her estate by the Ordinary of Barnwell District.
The matter submitted to arbitration, and award to be the plaintiff on May 31, 1820.
Note: Odum/Odom was spelled exactly the way it appears in the document.